Aftershocks
by Razrantha
Summary: KH1 : Postgame, Leon and co. find themselves in Hollow Bastion trying to pick up the pieces in a town that's lost nine years. Plotty, with yaoi undertones. Pairings are a slow burn.
1. of morning light

Title: Aftershocks  
Author: Kalloway  
E-mail: kalloway at gmail dot com  
Part: 1?  
Disclaimer: I owneth not KH nor any Square character mentioned herein. No profit is being made.  
Warning: Language, future content.  
Rating: M  
Summary: Post-game Hollow Bastion. What awaits those from Traverse Town?  
Pairings: To come...

o.o.o.o

"How am I supposed to go home?" Leon asked, leaning on the railing of one of the balconies of the Hollow Bastion castle, looking out over the stone steps that trailed downward to where a small village had reappeared from the retreating chaotic darkness.

"You'll walk," Aerith replied, reaching over to rest a hand on his shoulder. "You will, I will, we all will."

Casting a glance back over his shoulder to where the other three... four of their castaway lot stood, Leon nodded slowly.

"But... I don't know how... are we the only ones older? Can we just pick up our lives?" Leon looked down again. Smoke was starting to curl from the chimney of one of the houses, a reminder that life indeed had returned. But what sort of life was it?

"I..." Aerith seemed lost for words, instead silently moving to stand beside Leon, looking down with the same thoughtful gaze and staying there, shivering. Leon thought to give her his coat, but he really didn't think it would help at all. She wasn't shivering from the wind that snaked down from around the spires of the great monster on which they stood. She was shivering in realization that indeed it was impossible to ever truly go home.

Here they were, old before their time, forced through utter hell time and time again. And he thought of his family -- how had he ever disliked them so much, anyway? Part of him wanted to jump over the railing and freefall to the ground as a head start to racing to them. But he didn't because he was afraid. Would they remember him?

"I think we should go," a voice said behind them. "The castle won't crumble without us."

Leon turned to look into the eyes of the man who'd been his constant companion as a child, three years younger but too similar in spirit to let something so petty keep them from dueling with wooden swords and building forts in the forest past the village.

"Cloud's right," Aerith said, tearing her eyes away from the scene below. "We have to go home."

"Not all of us have homes," Leon said, looking to the back of the group lingering near the castle doorway. The army general, sent from the faraway capitol perhaps as punishment for both youth and wisdom, had been stationed in the castle with Lord Ansem...

No, that was not the way to think of him... just Ansem, just...

"I will still investigate the town with you," Sephiroth said, expression unchanging. "And I have no problem continuing to live in this castle."

"I'd ask you to live with me," Yuffie, the youngest of their group, said before frowning. "But... my father has never liked the king's army."

"True, we don't know the situation, but I really am content here," Sephiroth reiterated. "Besides, those of you who are adults now would perhaps be interested in joining me."

Leon nodded. Somehow, after nine years of not reporting to anyone for anything, the thought of sharing a roof with his father and aunt Ellone was a bit stifling.

"If we don't get off this damned balcony, we'll never know anything." The eldest of the group, the pilot and mechanic Cid, stalked through the group and planted himself in the center. "Don't make me get a piece of fucking rope and march you all along holding onto it. I have never been and will never be your babysitter."

Leon could certainly think of times when Cid had been their babysitter during the first years after Hollow Bastion fell, but now was obviously not the time to remind Cid of all the times he bandaged Yuffie's scraped knees or his hilarious attempts at comforting Aerith after her first boyfriend had dumped her.

"Let's go," Cloud said, taking the lead and not looking back as he exited the balcony.

Lingering, Leon couldn't help the fear that was gripping his heart. Once already he'd been forced to throw away everything he knew in exchange for unfamiliarity and uncertainty - now it was time to do it all again.

Forcing the beginnings of a smile, he found his place at the tail of the group and silently followed his five companions down the mountain and into the town.

The first thing that struck him was the silence. A fire crackled and animals made low noises of discontent to make up the white noise of any town, but Leon could not hear people. Something was very, very wrong.

And then he saw them - actually they all saw them. People were outside their homes, staring at one another, eyes vacant as though they were lost trying to find answers to a puzzle so complex that nothing sensical could come of it.

Yes, for in Hollow Bastion, it was nine years later. They were nine years older. And in the early morning sunshine in a place where most had simply gone to bed one night and awoken to a completely alien body with absolutely no idea what had happened, not a single person could think of words that could begin to convey just what they wanted to say.

What Leon feared for were those who had been awake, those like himself but who hadn't been so lucky as to escape the enveloping blackness as an army of shadows had devoured the hearts of innocents. Ansem had damned them all, and now... Now he had no idea how to begin to fix an entirely broken town.

"Squall! Cloud! Aerith!"

Everyone turned to where a black-haired man was running towards them.

"It is you, right? You're... okay..."

"Zack!" Cloud exclaimed, letting himself be embraced before pushing Zack away. "I'm... sorry. I'm sorry we..."

"I remember you reaching out for me," Zack said, recalling the night when everything had ended... "And that's it. The rest is gone. But what... everyone is..."

"Nine years older," Sephiroth said, offering a friendly handshake to one of his few town soldiers. "It's been nine years."

Zack was instantly rendered into the same shocked state as much of the town. "Nine years?"

"We did get away, but... if you remember nothing, perhaps you got the better deal," Yuffie said, watching as more and more of the townsfolk began to advance on them. "No nightmares, no heartaches..."

"I woke up, lying on the ground near the castle, but my body... I'm weak and hungry and most of the food is bad and I'm nine years older," Zack said, shaking his head. "What are we going to do?"

They looked at one another, reality kicking in. Nine years meant there were no crops; their animals were all close to death, and... There were no children, either.

Nothing, nothing could be the same.

"The castle stores," Aerith said suddenly. "There was a ton of canned food there. And we probably all qualify as mages now - maybe we can find some magic that'll help."

"Breed any animal that's still young enough and let's butcher any that isn't - old meat is still meat," Leon found himself saying. "We'll have to rally everyone to the town square to make plans. We have to be in this together."

"Yes..." Zack said, still looking completely overwhelmed before turning to the small group that had gathered at the sound of voices. "We must get everyone to the square."

"I'll go to the high part of town," Leon said, pointing to where more spaced houses rolled upward on a grassy hill. Fruit hung heavy on the trees there, he could see even from the distance. That was one thing worth celebrating.

"East," Sephiroth said.

"West," Cloud offered.

And Leon didn't hear the rest because he'd already turned a corner and was walking. It would have been easier if he'd just been nine years older and everything else had stayed trapped in time. But no, now there were minds vacant of nine years, babies who'd awoke in fully functional bodies but no idea how to use them, people who had probably come back only to die...

He had chosen the high part of town because it was far from where his home had been. He was not ready to see what time had done to his father, nor was he ready to face his aunt who undoubtedly would make a fuss over his scars.

The high part of town loomed before him, lacking the crackling fires of elsewhere that had likely been started as part of the morning routine before anyone had realized that suddenly they were not in their bodies, not in their time, not in their minds...

The first house belonged to a girl he had been in school with, cheerful and scheming. He raised his fist to knock but wasn't sure it was worth it. The door was unlocked and he just walked in.

Only silence greeted him, something Leon did not find comforting.

"Hello?" Leon yelled, his voice echoing through the large house. "Hello?"

There was noise then, to the back, out on a sun porch and Leon ran in that direction, not caring as his gunblade clattered against the walls. Somehow his beloved weapon was no longer as important as these voices in the void.

"Rinoa!" he exclaimed, thankful to see her and her neighbor's family sitting together, blankets around their shoulders and expressions like they were harboring the weight of the world. Never had he thought he'd be so happy to see any of his classmates. Never.

"Squall?" she whispered, voice harsh and dry. "Squall, what happened?"

"Everyone's down at the square," he replied, not wanting to bother to explain the details more times than he had to. "Just please go."

"I..." The soft murmur came from Garnet, Rinoa's neighbor. The last time Leon had seen her, she'd been skinning her knees alongside Yuffie. But now she was a beautiful young lady who'd obviously been stuffed into one of Rinoa's dresses. "I don't feel right."

"I know," Leon said, walking over to where she sat and dropping down on one knee to take her hand. "And I think you're going to have to feel that way for awhile. But maybe if you go down to the square with Rinoa, you'll get to see Yuffie."

"Oh!"

Was she seven? Was she sixteen? After receiving thanks from two sets of bewildered parents, Leon practically ran from the house.

He couldn't do this. He would crack. He'd almost cracked. There were still seven more houses, no... six since Garnet's family had been with Rinoa's family. He didn't know all of the town adults, certainly not by name...

These days, no one knew his name, either.  
Leon had changed his name, tried to purge his memories of this town. It was self-preservation - Squall dwelled on things, let them eat him alive, drowned him. He was not Squall. Squall would not have survived. Squall would have cast his heart away too and woken up in flesh completely alien, again drowning, again failing at the simplest of things...

Shaking his head, Leon walked up to the next house, one that belonged to a beautiful actor and his younger brother.

Again, he didn't bother knocking. Years of barging in on Cid any time he needed anything had taken away most of that urge, anyway. Cid hadn't always been happy about it, but since Cid was not their babysitter, he also managed to refrain from scolding him. Punched him once, yes, but that had been well-deserved.

Cid had never really talked about a family or anything, Leon thought as he roamed through another seemingly empty house. There had been vague mentions of a pair of his employees, but that was all. Either Cid was a complete loner in life or he'd been like Leon, drowning in memories until shutting them away completely.

In an upstairs bedroom, Leon found them, still asleep and curled together in a large bed, neither the sun nor their own confused bodies calling them beyond sleep.

"Zidane..." Leon said softly, reaching to touch the shoulder of the younger brother. "Jii..."

Eyes fluttered open, surprising Leon with just how beautiful the wild teenager had become Zidane was somewhat close to his age but in a completely different social circle.

How was he supposed to deal with this, anyway? How were any of them?

"Who are you?" Zidane asked, trying to sit up. "Why do I... feel so funny?"

"Get up," Leon replied, pointing at the other man in the bed. "Get him up too and come down to the town square."

Too much. It was all too much. Five more houses to go but Leon found his legs shaking as he left the house of the brothers. By the time he made it across the unruly lawn to his next destination, he couldn't stand, sitting quickly and trying to blink away tears.

Unthinkable. Survival was going to be a miracle. Even with food, with shelter, with clothing, there was still no guarantee that there would ever be understanding.

Ansem had taken everything, he surmised. Taken everything and there was no way to get it back.

Nine years were gone; nine years that he'd had but no one else had... Nine years he'd eagerly trade for just one more minute of time back then, one more minute to mend bridges, one more minute to tell people...

"Excuse me..."

Leon looked up, his watering eyes revealing a rather blurry figure he finally realized was Lady Rydia, one of the few promising mage students the village had.

If she had come into power... any power, her body had to be absolutely wracked with it, insane...

"Rydia!"

"You know me?" she asked, dropping down to sit beside him. "Who are you?"

"Squall," Leon said. "Aunt Ellone's Squall."

"Squall!" Recognition shot through Rydia's eyes and she latched unto him. "Does Auntie Ellone look funny like I do? Can you take me to her? My body aches."

"She's down at the town square," Leon explained, trying to remember he was talking to a child, not an adult. "Everyone is. So please get your Auntie Rosa and Uncles Cecil and Kain and go there. Okay?"

"Okay, Squall. You look funny too!" Rydia smiled before running back into the house.

Four houses to go. This was an absolute nightmare.

Four more houses, but he made it.

As he made his way back down to the town, following behind the last of the high town residents, Leon wondered what had already happened, what he'd missed. Had Aerith been able to raid the castle storehouses? What did people have left, anyway? How would they make plans? How would things be enforced? Ansem had been their guiding force, their benefactor in their wild outland.

Sephiroth - General Sephiroth - would surely have a role, if everyone would get past his obvious touch of darkness. Would they? Either everyone would band together or they would fall apart in pieces.

His father had been a leader of sorts, too... respected at least, though not wanting responsibility beyond publishing the town newspaper once a week. They would need a leader. The town would need someone to cling to...

Wishing he had paid more attention to Ansem's books about human psychology, Leon made his way to the town square to see what was happening.

Not surprisingly, Cloud had commandeered the space at the foot of the fountain, standing on the ledge to see over everyone. He was speaking, but Leon wasn't close enough yet to hear his words.

"... Right now we should use everything we can to help one another. Any usable food, clothing, animals, seeds... If we can take one day at a time, we should manage to survive physically."

"But what of... Time?" a man in the front row asked. Who was he? Nida? Yes, Nida.

"There is no way to reclaim time," Cloud said. "Forward is the only option. But what am I supposed to say to comfort anyone? I can't... This is where we have to be strong together."

From the back of the square, Leon found himself playing a sick game of memory, trying to pick out names and faces, but the names were a blur and the faces were so different than what he remembered. Rinoa again, yes, Garnet, Zidane, Kuja... who was that beside them? Oh, Quistis from the next grade up... Yes, and who was that by Cid? Maybe one of his employees... black hair. He hadn't known them to begin with, though. He hadn't really known Cid other than by the smallest of acquaintances.

And there was... Ellone. A man beside her. His father. Blinking away tears again, Leon decided that perhaps he'd best make his existence known. Yes, if he could have had another minute nine years ago, he would have apologized for the fights, for the unfounded hatred, for saying such horrid, terrible things. He didn't know if they could ever actually be close, but Leon was willing to try this time. With both of them. Ellone looked downright beautiful -- she'd grown into quite the woman.

Cloud was still talking, Sephiroth nearby, willing to quell any dissent. But Leon really wasn't listening. As fucked up of a second chance as this all was, suddenly it felt good to have it.

o.o.o.o  
Note: Yay for speculative what-ifs. Nine years lost, nine years to make up for. Just a very random idea that took root in seconds... I've always wanted to do an alternative before-game story with a town very much like this, but I couldn't cement the details. So have the after-shocks. Enjoy.


	2. of darker days

Title: Aftershocks  
Author: Kalloway  
E-mail: kalloway at gmail dot com  
Part: 2?  
Disclaimer: I owneth not KH nor any Square character mentioned herein. No profit is being made.  
Warning: Language, future content.  
Rating: M Summary: Post-game Hollow Bastion. What awaits those from Traverse Town?  
Pairings: To come... 

o.o.o.o

As Leon took a step towards his family, a hand caught his shoulder.

"Leon..."

The apprehension in Yuffie's voice startled him. Something was most definitely wrong. More wrong. More wrong than all of this because so far she'd been unwavering. Of course, the string of realizations they were all being forced to comprehend was enough to unhinge anyone.

"Yuffie?"

"There's... there's a body count."

Nodding, Leon looked downward, examining the ground. That was to be expected. And there would be more, too. The prospect was not a happy thought, of course, but beyond those who had been revived only to die, there would be others. Not every mind could handle losing nine years; not everyone could wake up nine years older and expect to instantly adapt.

He'd thought about that - while walking back into town he had thought about that. He would implode with worry if he let it build though, and Leon did not want to do that. One day at a time... they'd just take one day at a time.

"With life, there is death," Leon said finally, gazing back at Cloud, wondering instead when his younger blond friend had become such a leader. But even in Cloud's posture, there was fear. He couldn't hide it, not from Leon.

There was fear in all of them. But as Cloud spoke, there was something else too - hope.

Leon stood in the back with Yuffie at his side, waiting, listening, watching. When Cloud finished and no objections were spoken, there was a silence more painful than any of the questions that had been lobbed at Cloud. So despite not wanting to draw attention to himself, Leon brought his hands together, gloves making a distinctive thump as he led what turned into cheers and applause.

He thought he saw Ellone turn to look back, but by then the crowd had shifted and she wouldn't have been able to see, not clearly. But she would know - she was like that. She would know.

A woman raced through the crowd and flung herself at Cloud, making Leon raise an eyebrow before he realized it certainly must be Cloud's elder sister, Aya. She still looked young, despite waking up at close to thirty. More like twins, he thought as she crushed herself against him, not bothering with worrying about public appearance. Yet strangely he couldn't remember Cloud and Aya ever getting along particularly well. She had certainly never been a large fan of Cloud going off adventuring both into the forest and to Ansem's castle.

"Squall..." Leon had been so caught up in watching Aya that he'd missed Ellone quietly tracking him down. The crowd was dispersing now, likely to round up supplies before retreating to their minds to search for quiet acceptance.

"Are you okay?" Leon asked, smiling at her smile.

"I feel strange, but it's to be expected," Ellone replied, reaching out to take Leon's hands in hers. "You look so different - so strong. I probably look strange too, though, to you."

"You look beautiful." It was no lie, after all. "Have you talked to Rydia or any of the young mages yet? I'm sure they'll need your help..."

"Cloudy asked us all to bring food to the cafe so we can see what we have to work with," Ellone said. "After that's all taken care of, I'll round up the mage students... Oh! I can't call him Cloudy anymore, can I? He's all grown up."

Their eyes met and Leon could only wonder what she saw in his icy blue. But she didn't let go of his hands.

"You too... all grown up. And..." Finally she let go, reaching up to brush away Leon's bangs. "What did you do to yourself, young man! I could have fixed that right up for you..."

Unable to handle the sudden mirth that washed over him, Leon started to chuckle. In all his fears, all his uncertainty that went with the entire day so far, one thing had in fact stayed exactly the same.

But where was...

That's right - the fight. The reason he'd been out so late at night, right in the path of destruction, saved only because the universe thought his suffering was the stuff of comedy.

His stomach lurched as his mind padded that bare bit of information with details, the hows, they whys, what could have happened, what did happen...

Likely the last thing his father remembered was that fight. Nine years had erased most of it from Leon's mind, especially once nine years of knowledge was taken into account.

"Where's Laguna?" Ellone's words echoed his thoughts exactly. "You two really need to talk... last night he had just gotten me to go look for you when... no, not last night. Nine years ago. Squall, you have to realize that he was just worried..."

"Rightfully so," Leon said, silencing her. "I was sixteen. What did I know?"

And then he brushed by her, leaving her standing in the middle of the square. His father was lingering over near the street that meandered off to their house, and even if his father only had one night to repent for, Leon didn't really want to add another second to what he'd been holding for nine years.

But instead they just walked, in silence, towards their house.

Leon kept looking for words, kept waiting for his father to just up and say something, no matter how stupid, no matter how completely unrelated it was to anything that was going on...

"You grew your hair out."

Yes, that was enough. Perfect, really. A jumping off point. Something to open lines of communication marred by years of fighting, strife, unending fits of misunderstanding. Now Leon just recognized it all as the work any parent would have rightfully performed, but at the time it was just insult after injury.

"Yeah," Leon said. "Kinda forgot to cut it and decided I liked the look."

"You look like your mother."

"I know. Cid told me -- he and mother were neighbors growing up."

"I only objected because I didn't want you to get hurt."

"I think I'm over it, Laguna," Leon said, wishing the word 'Dad' was part of his vocabulary. But growing up with Ellone as surrogate mother and sister, he never learned that Laguna was anything but 'Laguna' until it was too late. "If you can be."

"But you're still... I mean... Are you seeing anyone?"

Yeah, Leon knew that question would come up soon enough too.

"No," he said, trying not to smile when he realized they were in front of their house, exactly as it had been. "Haven't really had... time."

"Do we have anything canned?" Ellone popped through the door and between the men on her way to rummage through the cabinets. "We certainly have the dried remains of all sorts of things, sadly..."

"Right," Laguna said, nodding. "Survival. I am a bit hungry."

"Aerith went to the castle, I believe," Leon said, resisting the urge to go check out his bedroom. There was a book he did rather want to finish, one he'd borrowed from the castle library. "She would know the kitchens and stores as well as anyone... she was always leading the children around on adventures through the castle."

"Neglecting her studies with Ellone, at that," Laguna added as he followed Ellone into the kitchen. "I don't suppose she ever..."

Now was the time to show off a little, Leon thought as he stepped into the kitchen behind Laguna. Not exactly normal behavior for him, but he wasn't feeling particularly normal, either. Too much... not being able to just sit down and cling to his family or to run and check on Aerith and Yuffie... his gut level suddenly and completely askew.

Yes, now was the time to make a point that while they were still rather unaware of just what sort of time-warp had taken place, he had grown, matured, become something beyond the brooding teenager that he had been.

A quick cast, without effort, with little will... Leon held balled lightning tight, illuminating the room as it crackled in his hands. Both Laguna and Ellone turned, eyes wide as they watched him.

"Beautiful control," Ellone said after a couple of seconds. "But put it away before you hurt yourself again."

The sharpness in her voice was enough to convince Leon that his aunt was still very much his aunt and that if he ever did intend to stay in the house and not in the backyard, he would listen to her. He released the energy back into the air and his body, careful to keep it controlled.

"It looks as though you found a good instructor," Laguna said after another few seconds of silence. "Ellone never thought you'd..."

"I was wrong," Ellone said quickly. "You grew into it. You'll have to show me..."

"I will," Leon said, turning to open one of the cabinets where he thought some sugar might be locked away safely. "But I'll have enough time to tell you everything, show you... what I've learned."

"I wish I had things to show you, too," Ellone said. "But I'm looking forward to you... and Aerith must be astounding by now! Oh... I don't suppose you two managed to get together, did you?"

Leon winced, mirroring Laguna's wince. Obviously a little bit of that fight the night before-nine years ago hadn't quite reached her ears.

"No, Ellone, I'm not seeing anyone," Leon said, somewhat amused again that so much had escaped such a usually intuitive woman.

Still, this was almost too much, too fast. He did want to get out, did want to get back to the cool air of the morning and wherever Cloud and Sephiroth and Zack and Cid were... Where he could do more than move a bag of sugar to the table and wonder what else didn't go bad after years in the black void.

Yes, he wanted to be back outside, back before... Finally he had everything back and in the back of his mind he was coming to realize that he had moved on, gotten past all of this... He wasn't supposed to go home, after all.

Another pair of bags sat on the table by the time he'd snapped back to attention and he scooped them into his arms.

"Ellone, Laguna, I'm going to take these to the Cafe," he said quickly before turning and walking out of the kitchen. They'd understand. They'd have to... even if it hadn't been nine years for them, it had for him and that was currently what he was trying to deal with.

The outside air did feel good, and he could hear voices as he walked the short distance back to the square. There was more life, more energy in the air than even a few minutes before and it felt really good. Even if he couldn't reconnect with his family as easily as he'd hoped, certainly life would go on.

The walk to the square was much shorter than he'd remembered it being, and after dropping his bounty into the arms of a black-haired woman who looked suspiciously like one of Zack's relatives, he kept walking, not entirely sure just where he was going.

This was not the feeling he'd been expecting at all... He felt as though he was seeing the dead, those he'd written off as dead, those he had already mourned for and mentally dealt with. He felt cold and distant, so far from those relationships he was expected to fall back into. His brain told him to jump as Ellone was saying the words, but... More than his veiled instinct to obey her he just wanted her to recognize him as being both the Squall she knew and someone else... Leon.

That was going to be interesting, too. He rather liked his assumed name and didn't want to go back to being the person known as 'Squall'. 'Squall' was too soft, too brooding, would never have made it this far.

Leon kept walking, falling deeper into thought until he found himself standing at the entranceway to the castle, a path he'd walked a thousand times before and not even thought about as he was doing it again.

Reaching out to touch the cool marble that he couldn't feel anyway through his gloves, Leon cursed himself. This wasn't what he intended -- so far all he had done is prove that as much as he was Leon, he was in fact still Squall, still very much tied to this place.

At a loss for what to do, Leon stood a moment, taking in the sun sparkling on the nearby river that would feed the basin around the castle before moving on, south, to where a great ocean would take that water and claim it.

Then he remembered Aerith having come to seek food within the bowels of this beast. The shadows were already lifting within the castle, the last of the darkness fading to leave the place dusty but overall fairly bright and airy. Throwing open each balcony door and window would do some good, too...

Instead of heading to the lift stop that would take him down to the kitchens, Leon crossed to a lift stop that would take him upwards, to a place he remembered quite well. His stomach twisted at his actions, but that was no deterrent. He had ghosts to face, things he could not just get over while honing his skill in the back alley of Traverse Town.

The room was little different than any other of the guest rooms of the castle - four-poster bed draped in raw silk, carved armoire, understuffed yet comfortable sitting chairs, balcony with a view that lasted for miles... But this room was the one that Squall had wanted, had always taken when twilight lapsed into night and the path was too dark to risk descent.

This was the room where...

A knock at the doorframe startled him from his reverie - he'd always done so well at not getting lost in thought, not falling so far downward as to make him a target for the heartless. But now, now he was falling so far backward into his old self...

"Leon?"

Leon turned, relaxing a bit when he realized his visitor was just Cloud.

"It's too weird," Leon said, walking over to the balcony doors. He let his hand rest on the lock as he looked out to where mountains pierced the clouds, away from the town, away from it all.

"That's why I'm not surprised to find you here," Cloud said, following across the room to look out across the landscape. "We're alike like that. Always have been... unstable, not quite willing to accept..."

"Leave me out of you mind trips," Leon hissed, unlocking the double doors and pushing them open. "I don't want to hear it right now."

"Leon, we've been friends since Ellone and Aya dumped us off to play in the same mud puddle," Cloud began, reaching out to lay a gloved hand on Leon's shoulder. "And don't think I don't know about this room. Don't think that I don't know you have all sorts of issues with this place but came straight here anyway..."

Leon's eyes grew wide as he listened to Cloud, anger boiling. This was his problem, his memories, everything inside of him. What was Cloud going to say next? That he understood - that he... Leon just wanted Cloud to shut up. Shut up - shut up - shut up! Before he even knew what he was doing, he moved, grabbing Cloud and pinning him against the outside wall of the balcony. Wind whipped down from the towers, not as chilly as it had been earlier, but just as strong. He held Cloud's hands, had his body holding Cloud's.

Their first fight had been in that mud puddle twenty years before, ended without a winner and their fights had been punctuated by that recurring result for years after. But this demanded a winner, demanded that Cloud just shut up and go away and not invite any more anger or pain or anything onto himself.

Leon hadn't realized he was breathing so heavily and was almost surprised to find himself staring into the blue of Cloud's eyes, trying not to be angry, trying to figure out why Cloud had just never mentioned this little tiny great big huge fact before.

"Shut up," Leon said harshly, letting Cloud's arms go but moving to hold one hand against Cloud's chest in warning. "You may think you know, but... No... whatever you think..."

"Then tell me," Cloud said, voice low. "Just tell me, Leon. Let it out. Obviously you need to."

"Quit trying to tell me what I need to do - quit trying to think you know how I feel..."

"Let me off this wall then," Cloud replied, reaching to gently push Leon away. "And either you talk about it or we drop it forever, you follow me out of this room, and we leave this castle, together."

"What if I choose neither?" No, this hurt too deep. But Cloud had always been there, despite being a couple of years younger they'd been so close, so friendly. Somehow denying Cloud the true story went completely against everything they wanted to work for in the town - understanding, truth...

"You won't," Cloud answered.

Yes, Cloud did know him - knew his answers, knew just what he'd do next.

"Fine." Leon stalked over to lean against the balcony rail. "I'll just admit it then... I found myself..."

No, this was too much, too... He squeezed his eyes tightly, thinking it all through, each glance and touch and comment... And his fight with Laguna, the reason he'd... All of it was so stupid now, so...

"Just him?" Cloud asked. "Or, you know, men in general?"

Yes, the perfect way to lose a perfectly good friend and reasonable confidant, even if said friend was currently seconds from meeting the business end of a gunblade he stupidly didn't even have on him.

Leon did know he'd have to tell Cloud eventually, but this was not how he'd planned it - not at all... He knew his friend would never look at him the same way again, no matter how things were brought to light... Yet...

Really... Cloud did know - had known. And Cloud had not acted at all different.

"Men... in general," Leon admitted. "Didn't know how to tell you though, how you'd handle it at fourteen."

"Probably the same way I'll handle it now that I'm sure," Cloud replied, a slight smirk forming on his lips. Leon hadn't noticed the blond getting quite so close to him.

And while he was still trying to process just when that had happened, he left himself quite vulnerable for attack. But instead of payback for earlier, there was no menace in Cloud's touch, no force in his fingers, just something Leon could only think of as a physical sigh of relief.

Cloud's lips met his softly, not asking for a single thing but that moment. So for that moment he gave himself, not at all thinking of what would have to be discussed afterward.

o.o.o.o.o  
A/N: Um, I wasn't expecting that either. Shit.


	3. of bloodied hands

Title: Aftershocks  
Author: Kalloway  
E-mail: kalloway at gmail dot com  
Part: 3 of ?  
Disclaimer: I owneth not KH nor any Square character mentioned herein. No profit is being made.  
Warning: Language, bloody, gore. Be warned.  
Rating: M Summary: Post-game Hollow Bastion. What awaits those from Traverse Town?  
Pairings: No, that last chapter was not indicative of anything. Be patient.

o.o.o.o

Not pushing, not taking, they just stayed there, dragging out a nearly chaste kiss until the emotion swirling within Leon overflowed.

"No," he said, pushing Cloud away. "Not yet. Not..."

Turning, he almost ran back through the room, following the twisting turns of the castle hallways until he was outside, working his way back towards the village.

Any time before, when they'd... Why had Cloud waited until...? There was too much to think about, too much to do. Cloud would understand. He'd have to. Time could not be allotted for the trials and tribulations of starting a relationship, of all things. If a relationship could even be started... Somehow, the thought of meaningless sex was even worse. Because really, it wouldn't be meaningless, at least not to him. And that kiss, that kiss was not meaningless, either.

"Squall!" Leon looked up from where he'd been watching the motion of his boots on the uneven stone that formed roughly hewn steps that had seen far better days. A figure with black hair was waving to him from below, down by one of the still pools of aged, rotting water.

Zack...

"Your sister was looking for you," Zack said once Leon had gotten a bit closer. "Not really looking for you though... She wanted me to tell you that if you saw anyone with mage skills to send them her way."

Leon nodded. That was fairly typical Ellone - not there but passing along messages as though she were. It wasn't even noon - were things progressing so well so quickly?

"And... well, Sephiroth and Doc N are working on getting all the bodies moved to Doc N's place. And... then we'll bury them, I guess."

"There are... that many?" Leon asked, pausing on the trail. He knew that there would be casualties, of course - anyone who would have died in the last nine years would have gasped their final breaths somewhere around sunrise. But... The town wasn't that large. Surely there couldn't be that many... Surely... there wouldn't be many more?

"A couple dozen, maybe," Zack replied, motioning for Leon to keep following. "We're still looking though. How about in the castle?"

"Huh?"

"Where you just were," Zack replied, awkwardly pointing back up behind them at the towering building. "I mean, you did go up there for a reason, right?

Right. That's what he should have been doing. Something useful. Because everyone else was being useful, after all. And Ansem had certainly done some bizarre things in that castle. There might be survivors and there might be victims. But… other than Cloud, he hadn't seen anyone. Probably... it was too late. Not everyone could come back from the void, after all, and likely not the ones Ansem had tainted first, probably slaughtered.

His stomach turned and Leon was thankful he'd had nothing to eat yet. Still, he dropped to his knees, his body trying to expel the nothingness inside him.

"Hey... Hey!" Zack had an arm around him suddenly. "It's okay... whatever it is, it's okay. Squall..."

The wetness around his eyes, that was not the beginnings of tears, just from his body, just from... Somehow it was only just hitting him what Ansem had done, what Ansem was... and all that time, the time nine years before when...

What had he wanted to give himself to?

Zack was holding his hair back, clutching him in what any other time might be much too personal an embrace. He felt absolutely damaged, the personal strength held onto for the last nine years was dying inside him and turning black, wanting to be vomited from his body along with the final bit of stomach acid he spit into the stagnant pool before letting Zack guide them both back to their feet.

"I don't expect you to tell me," Zack said, shaking his head. "But if you ever want to..."

"I've had enough confessions today," Leon interrupted, looking down at the village. "And besides, right now survival is what's important."

"I can send Elena up to the castle," Zack said a moment later, once they were walking. "She's in the way otherwise... wanting to be important, I guess. Do you remember her, Squall?"

"Not really," Leon admitted. "And I go by 'Leon' now, if you don't mind..."

"Leon," Zack repeated. "Might take a little getting used to."

"Everything might get a little getting used to."

"Yeah, well I guess I need to wait for everything to sink in before really..."

"Zack!"

They were almost at the bottom of the path now, where the grade didn't need actual stairs to go upward. A man all in black was waiting for them, standing stern as if he'd been watching their entire descent.

"Sheriff," Zack said cordially, acting as though he were about to tip an imaginary hat to the man.

"I think you want me on your side," came as reply.

Leon paused.

"We've got to work together. While... while I was away, I stayed in a town of survivors from many worlds, and it worked. Not perfectly, but it worked," he said, meeting a dark gaze.

"I was only offering assistance. I'm still the one in charge of upholding the laws..."

"Laws aren't really anyone's biggest concern right now," Leon snarled. As if somehow there was anything more important than those that survived, food... taking care of the dead. Just for a couple days... it should be okay to borrow, maybe even steal, should be okay to break some glass and a few doors to help anyone beyond helping themselves. The things they needed... needed, not just wanted, should be in a realm no lawman should bother glancing towards. "Avert your eyes if you have to."

"I just want to make sure petty rationalization doesn't become a plague. See, I agree with you. But unlike the military, I cannot outright condone your actions."

Zack narrowed his eyes. "Not this again. I don't care how much you hate the General. This is..."

"Ridiculous." Leon pushed past Zack and past the sheriff, not bothering to look back. Petty, indeed. Whatever bad blood still ran between Sephiroth and Sheriff Tseng was going to have to be shoved aside for the time being, if not buried completely. Half of it was Lord Ansem's puppetry anyway... Leon shuddered at his own thoughts.

Still, Ansem had requested the military presence and invited General Sephiroth from the main kingdom hundreds of miles away. Zack and four others made up the entire unit, double the size of Tseng's two-man patrol but not yet as effective. And while the law handled the... law, the military handled ridiculous defensive things, like taking care of a rabid dragon and... Leon really had to think, since he was too young at the time to actually join up and only caught bits and pieces from his father.

Oh yes, that time Tseng's two lackeys had gotten severely plastered and had needed a proper military escort home... that was half of the problem right there.

Turning a corner to head into town, Leon felt a slight pang of guilt over leaving Zack out there to deal with Tseng, but somehow he knew that Zack could handle himself.

Doc N, also known but certainly not better known as Doctor Nusakan, had both residence and clinic across town, which is where Leon suddenly realized he should probably head. So far he'd been all of not useful, something he wasn't exactly proud of.

"Oh! Squall! A favor..."

Leon turned to seek the source of audible double exclamation points. From a window to his left dangled the top half of Rikku... Nope, absolutely could not remember her last name. Something hard to pronounce, as if the vowels had been swapped...

"If it's for Ellone..."

"No... See, Paine and Yuna and I are collecting clothing. Because no one's clothing fits anymore and we thought maybe we could have a store... But not a buying store, just a trading store. Like if you brought in your old clothes for someone new to wear, you could get something new to wear, too!" Rikku beamed, long braids bouncing against the window frame.

"Sure," Leon replied as he kept walking. It was an admirable idea, especially after seeing some of the cobbled together outfits being worn by the townsfolk. He wasn't sure what he would be wearing, either, save for borrowing Laguna's clothing. And already he knew he'd be teased for growing his hair out nearly as long, but to actually shrug on Laguna's awful casual must-be-colorblind clothes? Leon rolled his eyes at the thought. Maybe someone would trade in some nice utilitarian leather. Or at least something resembling the nice military fatigues Zack had on. Zack had at least been at the end of his growth spurt nine years ago.

"Leon."

His name... finally. But he didn't want to turn to see what Sephiroth wanted. Because he wasn't anywhere near Doc N's yet. That only meant that he would have to turn and face death, even if it was a death already faced and beaten.

"General." He turned anyway, looking back over his left shoulder, wondering if somewhere in his mind was a better map of town so he knew if he should dare head into the house Sephiroth stood near.

He would have joined the military, for lack of having any clue what to do with himself. Ansem would have wanted it... Ansem had done all the orchestration, oh yes... Was, was Sephiroth, no, had Sephiroth been a puppet? Or a string-puller?

At one point, he'd actually thought they looked alike, but no... different faces and skin tones, different eyes...

"Ellone was looking for you," he said, the thin line of his mouth turning upward in the sort of smile Leon did not find himself liking.

"So I've heard," Leon replied. "I haven't seen any mages for her, though."

"I was going to ask for assistance with a pair of bodies," Sephiroth said, eyeing Leon once over. "But you look a little green already."

"I can help," Leon said quickly. Anything to move his mind. He did not want to dwell. He did not want to get stuck on the one thing that would break him.

"Are you sure?" Sephiroth asked, gesturing to the house. "Three bodies, actually... proof that... proof that reconstructing the universe was not done by a fair god."

Leon paused with his lips parted. 'And what are you?' he dared to ask, wondering if a patch of feathers still lingered on the General's back.

The things they'd done in the last nine years... What of them could ever be explained to those who'd simply lost time in the abyss?

Following Sephiroth into the house, Leon was back out into the street again, vomiting what felt quite like his entire skeletal structure out into the alleyway separating that house from the next.

"Leon..."

Why did everyone have to hold his hair like he was child or drunkard...? Why couldn't he be just a little bit stronger?

"I'm okay," Leon said, pretending his legs weren't shaking.

"You don't have to go back in there."

"I know." Leon had never really thought about Sephiroth's eyes before and the fact they did not belong to anything human. But after playing poker in the not-so-distant past with a trio of talking ducks, nothing should really be so strange.

"You're going to anyway?"

"Yes," Leon replied, pushing the unlatched door back open. He winced as he took a step forward to let Sephiroth in behind him, but he didn't look away. No... This was reality. This was something to face.

"I think... I never realized just how pink and red we are on the inside," Leon said, watching as Sephiroth knelt to separate two of the bodies that were obscenely intertwined.

"Leon... Rationalize however you want, but these two had no chance," Sephiroth said, paying no heed to the blood staining his hands as he tried to tuck entrails back into the body of a young woman. "Go find some blankets so we can take them to Nusakan. There's a cart in the street."

Leon nodded, walking around the third body to search a dark hallway for bedrooms. It didn't matter now, what of this family's belongings were used as their funeral dressings. Pulling thick covers off a bed, Leon dragged them back through the hallway to the main room.

Maybe it wasn't so much the blood or even the splayed flesh, but maybe it was the expression of sheer anguish on the woman's face. Sephiroth was trying to close her wide eyes, smearing blood on her face as he did so.

"Here," Leon said. "Which will we do first?"

"Him," Sephiroth said, pointing at the body laying by itself, pooled blood freshest around it.

"He didn't have to die."

"He chose to," Sephiroth interjected quickly. "Without them... why live?"

"That's not... That's not the way to think."

Sephiroth grabbed a blanket and spread it on the floor.

"Leon. Either help or leave," Sephiroth reached for the man's upper half, grabbing it and pausing for Leon to reach for feet.

Once bundled and ignoring the slight bit of blood still dripping, the pair carried the first body out to Sephiroth's cart.

"Have there really been that many?" Leon asked. "Zack said..."

"Perhaps two dozen, counting these," Sephiroth answered, laying down another blanket. "The child in this one."

Leon winced again, trying to hold back his stomach's impending revolt. He wondered how far along the woman had been in her pregnancy and knew that the horrified expression left on her face had to have formed in the split second of being between coming back from the void and having a body nearly her own size come tearing out of her body.

No wonder... No wonder her husband had chosen not to carry on. Nothing could clean the house now. Nothing could clean his soul...

Leon shook his head, not realizing just how carefully Sephiroth was wrapping the bodies, certainly with more respect than needed to be displayed in such a situation.

Maybe he hadn't judged the other man properly. Maybe beneath those strange, unworldly eyes was someone perfectly normal and simply so tightly wrapped in a shell...

Or, listening to the sound of meat landing in the cart with just a little more force than necessary, Sephiroth really was a cold god trying to be human.

Sighing, Leon helped wrap the last of the three bodies and after taking one last look at the dark, sticky stain still setting into the hardwood floor, he closed the home's door. A horse would have been nice, Leon thought as he went to grab one of the hand-cart's handles, forcing his body a little too close to Sephiroth's in the process.

Strangely, he hadn't seen any dead animals yet, just those that were elderly and lingering near homes, their confusion nearly as apparent as their owners'. Perhaps in that way, the dark void had been kind. But to not return some things and to return... those in the cart they were towing the last few blocks to Doc N's place. Dug into a hill with a backroom cooler than anywhere else in town, it was the best place - save for the icy depths of the castle for temporarily storing bodies.

They'd have to dig... Leon hadn't even thought of that. He thought the mages would help with the fields, growing food quickly, but could their power be put to such a gruesome task.

But everything would be catalogued first, step by step. There was no way to rush through everything. Normalcy would certainly have to be earned.

His hip kept brushing Sephiroth's thigh, their height difference making itself apparent as their strides were awkward and mismatched.

"I ran into Sheriff Tseng," Leon admitted after they'd cleared the first two blocks. "I think... He'll be trouble."

"I'm sure," Sephiroth replied, voice cool. "But at least one of his deputies has been helping us as well, so I believe right now there's no use in petty spats."

"Will people really be able to adjust to this? Once it sinks in?"

"You think too much." And Sephiroth was silent for the rest of the trip.

Quickly the pair unloaded the cart into the back of Doc N's clinic, lining the three bodies up beside a row of others.

"Yesterday, nine years ago, I remember cleaning the clinic and wondering what it would be like to be a doll in a child's dollhouse, walked through actions each day," Dr. Nusakan said, turning from a metal exam cart to address the pair. "Only now to realize the horror that would be!"

Looking away, at the bodies, Leon didn't speak. The earthen floor would hold the blood. The place would smell of death for long after the dead were buried. Secretly he'd always though Doc N to be a little crazy, but he was also a powerful mage and had shown exceptional physical skill during a plague of monsters some... quite a few years before. Perhaps not crazy, just out of place in such a small town.

"We are no puppets," Sephiroth finally said, smirking. "Do your job."

"Has anyone gone to the cemetery yet?" Nusakan asked, finally leaving his grisly task and adjusting his glasses, looking slightly more sane than he had the moment before when coming out of introspection.

"Not that I know of," Sephiroth replied, glancing over at Leon. "Leon?"

"I can go," Leon said after a moment. "Or I can find someone..."

"I believe the owners of the Cafe have lunch planned for noon," Nusakan interjected. "Which it nearly is."

"You'll need to round up a few strong people to help," Sephiroth said, after nodding in Doc N's direction. "No Quake spells in the cemetery - just digging."

"But lunch... right?"

"Think you can handle it?" Sephiroth asked before looking down at himself and the blood that streaked his body. "I doubt it would be a morale boost to show up like this."

Doc N chuckled. "We're about the same size," he said. "Borrow something of mine for now."

"The girl-gang..." Leon began, before wondering if they would still be considered that. "They're starting a clothing-swap over near the path to the castle. Just in case..."

"You'll likely need new attire," Nusakan said quickly as he went to clean his hands, leering perhaps a bit much. "As will most of the younger members of the town."

"Those three were very much into dressing themselves up -- are they safe to clothe others?" Sephiroth asked with a chuckle as he accepted a spare uniform from Doc N's closet. Leon led the way out of the back room, thankful to leave that scene behind.

"Perhaps we'll be thrust into a fashion renaissance," Nusakan suggested, motioning to a small change room that Sephiroth could use.

Food did not sound appealing. And listening to Sephiroth and Doc N talk as though they hadn't just stepped out of a room full of people who never even had a chance was not making Leon feel any the better about anything.

He would have been better off staying up in the castle, trapped between the heat of Cloud's body and his memories of temptation by darkness.

The door was still open, and as soon as Doc N had looked the other way, he slipped out and headed off towards the cemetery.

o.o.o.o.o  
Notes: Planned in July, written in September, with minimal influence from current events.


	4. of days ending

Title: Aftershocks  
Author: Kalloway  
E-mail: kalloway at gmail dot com  
Part: 4 of ?  
Disclaimer: I owneth not KH nor any Square character mentioned herein. No profit is being made.  
Warning: Language, future content.  
Rating: M  
Summary: Leon thinks too much. Yuffie declares a slumber party in Leon's room. The first day is finally over.  
Pairings: lingering Cloud/Leon and implied Sephiroth/Cloud?  
o.o.o.o.o 

There was no real difficulty in determining that a grassy section towards the back of the cemetery was more than large enough for the number of bodies Leon had seen in Doc N's clinic.

The ground had never been particularly hard, either, definitely not in the cemetery. He knew - he knew too well...

Sitting down in front of a marble angel, Leon reached out to touch the lettering on the base. Raine Leonhart Loire.

Ellone had adopted the name Loire despite it not being hers, but Leon, even at five years old, had been angry enough to throw that name away to be Squall Leonhart.

And just Leon, now...

Strings of beads hung around the angel's neck, looking crisp and clean. He'd always lied and said that Ellone was the one who left them, one each year on his mother's birthday.

Leon made a mental note to round up some beads and add the eight or so strands that were now missing. He'd nearly forgotten the tradition.

Sighing, he stood. He knew how soft the ground was.

"You're lucky," Leon said as he turned to take another look at the empty patch of earth to the rear of the cemetery. "The world is insane now. I wouldn't want you to see me like this."

"Leon?"

Leon spun around, realizing he needed to stop being so damned surprised that people he'd barely associated with before were suddenly seeking him out.

"What?" he asked, taking one last look at his mother's grave before paying full attention o the curious gaze of a girl he could think of as being perhaps called Jessie.

"Oh good, that is you..." she continued, "Mister Cid sent me to get you. I've been looking all over."

Shaking his head, Leon was a little appalled - he didn't need everyone to take care of him, after all.

"Tell Cid that I'm fine," Leon said a moment later when it became apparent that he'd either need to answer or risk being permanently trapped in her eyes. It was a look half child and half adult, so utterly confused that Leon just wanted to look away but couldn't.

"But he said you had to come," she insisted. "I can understand why you'd want to come here though. My dad is here..."

Great. Not only did he have the entire town playing babysitter but he also had a girl trying to catch up on prime years of teenage angst.

At least Cid hadn't send Cloud, Leon thought, finally nodding as a signal that he was ready to go.

"So... you know what happened, don't you?" Jessie asked as they walked.

"Yeah," Leon replied. "But I thought Cloud already explained."

"Yeah, but..."

"Ansem was a bad man," Leon said quickly, trying to make this as short as possible. "And because he wanted something for himself, he sacrificed this world."

"So how did everything come back?" Jessie asked, glancing up at Leon with those hypnotically lost eyes.

"There's a hero now, for all worlds," Leon explained. "We have to have faith in him and those traveling with him."

"Other worlds..." Those eyes were suddenly wide like a child's. "Oh..."

"Lots of other worlds," Leon continued. "But it wasn't as fun as it might sound."

"You probably feel just as weird as everyone who stayed here," Jessie commented, popping back to a teenager and falling into step beside Leon.

Leon almost chuckled since that really did sum it up completely. But the understanding of one not-child was instantly marred as they reached the Cafe and Leon found himself looking into near-glowing blue.

Cloud. His brain hadn't even processed most of what had passed between them just a couple of hours before and he still, by effect, had no idea what to say.

Because it wasn't that the idea of a relationship was horrible - it wasn't. However the thought of trying to make something work amidst confusion and already mixed emotions did not sound like a good idea. He was trying to be practical.

Besides, Leon knew that romantic attachment often developed within small groups of travelers or refugees - he didn't want to get involved only for Cloud to realize his feelings were just a random whim brought on by swirling insanity.

Cloud. He was worried about Cloud, which meant...

But Cloud turned, walking away in such a manner that Leon couldn't just leave Jessie to follow. Besides, Cid wanted something and it might just be important.

Cid was sitting at a picnic table by the Cafe, the remains of several lunches scattered on the table. A man and woman sat at the table near him, neither one seeming to be particularly with him but certainly both were somehow integral to his life or he would not have let them stay - or they wouldn't have tolerated his language and constant smoking, at least.

"Leon! Get the fuck over here!"

Yet Leon found himself really liking Cid, potentially because his bad traits were also his good traits, save for his habit of cussing in front of impressionable demi-children.

Complying, Leon waved Jessie away as he slung a leg over the picnic bench.

"We have digging to do," Leon said, eyeing Cid's companions for a moment before speaking. He was fairly sure that he wasn't going to get introduced.

But damn, Leon did know the man he was sitting beside - it was Vincent Valentine, original contender for sheriff some years before but too wild to actually get the position. Leon wasn't overly sure he' would even call Vincent one of the 'good guys', but it was certainly better to have him working for apparent good.

The woman, however, was a bit beyond the reaches of Leon's knowledge. He had been only sixteen at the last chance he'd had to see any of these people. And he had definitely had other things on his mind.

"Yeah, Doc N mentioned that," Cid said, lighting a cigarette and glancing off for a moment. "They're still serving food, y'know..."

"I'm not hungry," Leon replied firmly, shaking his head.

"Raine would want you to eat," the woman said, attempting a maternal glare but failing, obviously from a lack of experience.

"Shera, shut the fuck up. If he wants to starve himself, it's his choice," Cid chided.

Shera, that did sound familiar, but...

"You knew my mother?" Leon asked. "You're too young to..."

That was met with a happy giggle.

"I worked for her as a chambermaid in the castle," Shera admitted. "I read books in the library in my spare time and Raine actually introduced me to Cid and convinced him to let me be his apprentice."

"She's been a fuckup ever since," Cid added, flicking ash onto the ground.

He'd... he'd nearly forgotten that his mother had worked for Ansem, nearly as a personal assistant at times.

Surely, no, she had just gotten sick - Ansem couldn't have, wouldn't have... in a way his mother had delivered him right into Ansem's arms...

Oh...

"I'm still not hungry," Leon concluded, wanting very much to have somewhere he could go to be an able body and lose himself in menial work where he didn't have to think. He didn't want to think. He was afraid of where his thoughts would go.

"Your sister organized the mages," Vincent said suddenly. "They headed to the fields just before you made it back."

"Cloud went with them," Cid added. "And Aerith, of course. You may want to join them. You look fucking restless."

"Yeah..." Leon admitted. But he did not want to go where Cloud was.

"Augh!"

All four turned to where a blonde woman in a cook's apron was grabbing dishes from the tables.

"No one stayed to clean up," she complained. "Don't suppose any of you..."

And that is how Leon spent the rest of the afternoon up to his elbows in soap suds.

Leon readily admitted that he did not know the sort of ingenuity existed for five people to cook dinner from a hodge-podge of ingredients and make it enough to feed a whole town.

But truthfully, Leon was just very happy to have finished the dishes in time to use them again. He was also quite happy to not have dropped any of them after the lady he was betting on to be Zack's sister told him that most of the dishes had been donated since they obviously didn't have enough for everyone.

At first he had thought Shera was going to stay with him but no, she chased off after Cid like a lost puppy.

"Don't suppose you'd like to stick around after dinner," the blonde cook said, ignoring currently nonexistent health codes as she hopped up to sit on a counter. "And I know you didn't have lunch..."

"If you'd seen..."

"I just said that you didn't have lunch," she interrupted. "I wasn't beating you upside the head about it."

"You want me to eat something," Leon surmised, reaching for a new batch of utensils that had appeared.

"You're doing a good job," the cook replied. "I don't want you to faint from hunger and leave all the work for me. But I'm also a little surprised that a man re-introduced as a fierce warrior was so quick to volunteer to do dishes."

She swung her legs in silence for a minute, not watching much but the movement and the floor before she hopped down and headed off towards the ovens.

"We survived by doing what we could," Leon said to himself, leaving out the part where he had washed dishes for a few years to have enough money to help feed Aerith and Yuffie because he'd never expected Cid to do it on his own.

When the cook returned a few minutes later with a plate of food, Leon didn't say a word even as she tried to joke about making breakfast. But he did dry his hands in order to eat.

Sneaking in and out of his bedroom window had never been particularly difficult, but that had been nearly a decade before and he had been a decent bit smaller then.

Leon tumbled headfirst onto his bed, wishing he'd remembered to put his practice sword away nine years ago - the hilt felt horrid against his lower back.

And he hadn't had a chance to try to find clothing either, so as he stripped down in the dark, he started to imagine how ridiculous he would feel in the morning while wearing only a towel or blanket and trying to borrow something of Laguna's without Laguna laughing like a complete idiot.

"Can I borrow a pair of pants?" Leon tried in the dark. He started laughing. It was ridiculous. The world was ridiculous. Everything was just too fucking overwhelming. He didn't want to wake Ellone up, though. He grabbed his pillow and tried to stop laughing what he knew was the laughter of someone too close to the edge.

The day had been much too long for his comfort though - too many things had happened. Those bodies were likely still laying in Doc N's building, not that they'd suffer any harm in the cool darkness, slowly becoming more dead and less human and no longer his worry anyway.

He swallowed hard.

Cloud. They'd been best friends - no, they were best friends.

Just as he'd gotten the last of his damp, filthy clothing off, Leon heard a very distinctive tap at his window. Their stone house was older and hard to heat, so the windows were small and high. Climbing up on his bed, he peered out to see Cloud already half up on the rain-bucket below, ready to come through like he had hundreds of times in the past.

"Leon!" Cloud called, reaching to slide the window open at the same time Leon did.

"Shh..." Leon hushed him, reaching for Cloud's hands to pull him through. The awkwardness was gone - vanished in a puff of nostalgia. And understanding, Leon thought, of what the day had been like.

Both men fell into a jumble on the bed, chuckling as Cloud cursed at the practice sword jammed into his back, finally dropping it down between the bed and wall as he sat up and looked at Leon.

"You're naked," Cloud commented.

"I washed dishes all night," Leon replied, heading for his closet in hopes that he had some fairly stretchy sweatpants left. He assumed that elastic didn't die in the void of darkness, but he wasn't exactly sure. "Wet..."

"I... I'm sorry." Cloud sat looking at the ceiling, his eyes averted as Leon stumbled through his closet in the dark, finding and pulling on a nearly-comfortable pair of sweatpants.

"It's not you," Leon said. "It's the world. It's everything. Once we aren't breaking down doors to drag corpses to the street, maybe we..."

"Leon... Squall..."

"It's been a hard day."

"Yeah," Cloud agreed. "It has."

"You came here just to apologize?" Leon asked a moment later, realizing that Cloud hadn't moved.

"Couldn't sleep not knowing," Cloud admitted, finally looking at the floor instead of the ceiling.

Leon knew that feeling much too well. And Cloud was Cloud. After all, he hadn't been the least bit surprised by Cloud's actions for most of the day - everything but the kiss.

"Stay," Leon said almost before realizing he was speaking out loud. "I'll find you something to wear and some blankets so you can sleep on the floor. Just like you used to when Aya..."

"Aya is still Aya," Cloud interrupted. "Headstrong. Un-agreeable."

"She's probably right, though," Leon suggested, hoping that practice sword wasn't within Cloud's reach.

Halfway through digging in the dim light for something for Cloud to wear and trying not to pause as each piece of clothing threw memories at him, Leon sighed. The distinctive tapping of stones against his window certainly seemed to be the soundtrack for the evening.

"See who that is," Leon said, fairly sure he'd found a pair of pajamas that would slide over Cloud's slimmer form without trouble.

"Yuffie," Cloud reported back a second later, bedsprings creaking as the blond climbed up and slid the window open.

"Pull her in," Leon commanded. He was fairly sure he knew why she was there. She'd spent years sleeping with him - sleeping with him - when she was younger. And even though she had thrown off most of the nightmares and neediness of her youth to become a strong ninja, Leon had never been too entirely surprised when she slipped into his room even as a teenager when she had too much on her mind.

"Slumber party?" Yuffie asked, landing on the bed as Cloud jumped aside.

"Sure," Leon deadpanned, handing the pajamas over to Cloud. "I suppose you need something to sleep in, too."

"Um... Yeah," Yuffie admitted. "Sorry to drop in, literally, but things were just too weird at home."

She flopped onto the bed, looking up at the ceiling as Cloud started to pull off his own clothing in favor of the pajamas. Leon wondered just why his ceiling was so interesting. But instead of watching it or even watching Cloud and wondering when they'd all gotten so sensitive to each other's bodies - he'd have to run Yuffie through baths when Aerith was too busy trying to stitch their clothing together or making dinner or any of the other thousand things she'd been trying to do at fifteen - he plunged back into the closet in search of an oversized t-shirt or something for Yuffie. And blankets. But those were easy enough to find, along with a few throw pillows he'd herded from the living room when he was thirteen in order to always have something on hand for when Cloud arrived halfway through the night.

"Here..." Leon said, tossing the shirt in Yuffie's direction. "I don't suppose anyone is actually tired."

"Kinda," Cloud admitted, looking strange in Leon's old, threadbare pajamas. Harmless and young, really, Leon thought. If Yuffie hadn't been there, he would have considered recanting his declaration of waiting until things were a little less weird.

He wanted to thank Yuffie for being there.

There was a tap at the window. Leon wondered if he'd start laughing again. There were only a few people left that he at all expected to appear outside his window...

"Sephiroth!" Yuffie announced, bouncing up topless to peer out. "Guess I should put something on..."

"Here," Leon said, pushing past her to step up on the bed and slide the window open.

"The hydroelectric generator seems to have gummed up," Sephiroth said, frowning. "So there's no power at the castle right now and I can't even get down to fix it until morning."

"You can see in the dark," Cloud said, climbing up beside Leon.

"I can't borrow tools from Cid until morning," Sephiroth replied firmly. "I'm sure Ansem had them but I don't know where."

"So why are you here?"

"Why are you, Cloud?" he asked, green eyes bright in the moonlight.

"Slumber party," Yuffie said, popping up beside Leon. "I say we should let him in."

"Only if we actually sleep," Leon said flatly. "Sephiroth comes in and I give everyone a pillow and a blanket and we all sleep and then in the morning we never speak of this again. Unlike the rest of the town, we actually are our ages!"

"He's too big for the window," Cloud stated, glaring out again.

"I might be," Sephiroth said with a smirk. "But I'm not worried."

"Huh?" Yuffie tried to reach out the window but in a crackle of magic, Sephiroth vanished. Before the three could turn around, the same crackle echoed behind them and as they turned in unison, Sephiroth was standing there looking a bit less like a demigod and a little more like a tired man looking for a floor to sleep on.

"Pillows. Blankets. Sleep." Leon reiterated. He was ready to go sleep on the sofa. If anyone - anyone - dared show up at his window after this, he was not going to even look to see who they were. No, he was going to... something. Something bad. Throw water balloons or something.

It was just too ridiculous. Everything was. Not even capable of being annoyed that Cloud was suddenly engaged in a whispered conversation with Sephiroth and Yuffie hadn't budged from his one-person bed, Leon pulled blankets and pillows from his closet and tossed them on the floor.

And he'd slept in tighter spaces with Yuffie beside him after all. And he'd kinda assumed Sephiroth and Cloud had a past of some sort. So...

He knew where Cloud had dropped the practice sword, if anything did happen. His mind was tired.

"Shove over," he muttered, making sure he and Yuffie were between different layers of blankets as he pressed himself between her and the wall. He'd have to sleep with an arm draped over her. He could do that.

Still whispering in hushed tones, Sephiroth and Cloud seemed to be settling in as well. With one last bit of curiosity, Leon peered over Yuffie to see that they'd ended up in almost the same position, save that Cloud was using Sephiroth's usually-hidden wing as a blanket and that Yuffie had a hand dangling off the bed to rest in one of Cloud's.

Leon smiled. They were clinging to what they had.


	5. of new challenges

Title: Aftershocks  
Author: Kalloway  
E-mail: kalloway at gmail dot com  
Part: 5 of ?  
Disclaimer: I owneth not KH nor any Square character mentioned herein. No profit is being made.  
Warning: Language, future content.  
Rating: M Summary: Morning. The issue with clothing continues. Yuffie declares everything weird. Zack notices something. And Leon finds that he has as much to face as anyone.  
Pairings: Are not a serious part of this story yet, sorry.  
o.o.o.o.o.o 

Leon blinked once, a little confused both by the daylight peeking in his window and also by whatever was blocking most of his vision. Thankfully, before he could so much as shift, the mass in front of him moved a bit, mumbling something along the lines of 'ten more minutes, Squall'.

Yuffie. That was right. Everyone had decided to have an impromptu sleepover.

Trying not to move too much and disturb the sleeping ninja, Leon managed to prop himself up a bit to see that Cloud was still fast asleep on the floor. But he was alone down there; Sephiroth was already gone.

Sephiroth had been waiting for daylight, after all, to fix the hydroelectric generator for the castle. Or to get the tools to do so. Leon couldn't quite remember what time Cid got up at - it was always dark in Traverse Town so the cycle of day and night had basically been lost.

There were two quick raps on his door before it opened and Ellone marched in holding a spatula.

"Squall, I figured out how to make a kinda edible breakfa...Ah!" She stepped back, banging against the door while her mouth hung open, looking from Leon to Yuffie to Cloud and back again.

"Ellone," Leon began, finally moving enough to rouse Yuffie as he sat up. "Sorry... But it's not what you're thinking."

"Huh, Leon?" Yuffie asked softly, reaching to rub her eyes. "Where are... oh! Everything's back, isn't it. Five more minutes, then?"

"We're used to all staying together," Cloud explained, apparently much more awake than Leon had realized. He could only wonder if perhaps the blond had just been laying there, waiting for a moment when his own movement wouldn't pull anyone from much-deserved rest.

"We are," Leon echoed as he tried to squeeze out from beside Yuffie and crawl over her without landing on Cloud. "And as dumb as this sounds, some of us don't fit into the same clothing we were wearing nine years ago..."

"I'm sure I have something for Yuffie," Ellone said, finally relaxing her face to a soft smile. "But you two... Cloud looks right at home in your clothing. I'll have to ask Uncle Laguna for something for you, though, Squall... Leon. Leon. Leon Loire, now, right?"

Leon attempted to glare. He'd only taken Laguna's name because he hadn't expected anyone to comment on it.

Cloud started laughing.

"Sorry, Leon," he managed. "I just can't quite imagine wearing your old clothes. I... Where's Sephiroth?"

"Sephiroth?" Ellone asked, crossing her arms and flicking the spatula almost idly in the air. "The general was here, too?"

"Is something burning?" Yuffie asked, opening her eyes and looking around. "I smell..."

"Oh no!" Ellone took off into the hallway, leaving Leon's bedroom door wide open in the process.

"Today... I'm moving out," Leon announced as he wandered towards his closet. "But first I'm handing out costumes. Cloud, you'll be me at sixteen. Your motivations involve wanting to get away from your sister and secretly harboring a ridiculous fixation on someone it's better not to want romantic involvement with. Yuffie, you'll be playing the part of Ellone at twenty-one. You get to harass Cloud and run around with whoever is wearing Aya's clothing. And I'll be playing the role of Laguna... Ow, no... I can't do that."

Pulling out a shirt for Cloud, he was fairly sure it would fit the blond - it would probably show off a few more muscles and scars than Cloud would like, but Leon wasn't going to complain about that. Pants were a bit trickier, but military-styled cargos appeared beneath everything knocked loose in the dark the night before.

"Can't begin to get into the role of Laguna," Leon muttered. "Too stupid..."

"Wait, is Ellone your sister?" Yuffie asked. "She called your dad 'Uncle'."

"Technically she isn't related to me," Leon explained as he handed the clothing to Cloud. "Socks... "

He kept digging, eventually finding two pairs. At least his organization had gotten better as time had passed. Almost making a mental note to clean his room, he remembered his declaration about moving out.

"Your mother adopted her before marrying Laguna, right?" Cloud said, pulling off the pajama top and trading it quickly for the t-shirt. He glanced down at it for a moment before smiling. "Fourteenth birthday, right? I got you this and a couple of books that Lord Ansem... Nevermind."

"I remember," Leon said. Books from the far kingdom - beautiful fantasy adventure stories...

"Where are you moving to?" Yuffie asked. "The castle?"

Well, that was an option. Not the best place for a long term stay, but...

"I don't know," Leon replied. "I just know that staying here will kill me."

"Ellone said you needed pants."

Leon turned to the doorway to see Laguna standing there with an armload of clothing.

"Morning, Mr. Loire," Yuffie chirped as she attempted to sit up properly.

"Morning," Cloud echoed.

Leon wished he had a camera - the look on Laguna's face was absolutely perfect. Apparently Ellone hadn't mentioned his accidental slumber party.

"Pants, yes," Leon said quickly. He took the clothing from the slack-mouthed Laguna before waving his father away and closing the door.

"At any moment, Ellone will appear with something for you," Leon muttered, looking at Yuffie. "Actually, why don't you go help Ellone and find some clothing. There is no reason to keep staring at one another as if this isn't happening. It's real. We're back. We..."

"Have to move forward," Cloud finished. "I know. Yuffie knows, right?"

"Right!" Yuffie said, bounding off the bed and out the door, slamming it behind her as she went.

"There are the houses of those who've died, too," Leon said after a moment. Laying the clothing that Laguna had given him out on his bed, he picked the least awful pair of pants and a plain green shirt. "They need work, though."

"Sephiroth told me," Cloud commented. "Though those houses might be better for... I don't know. Couples."

"You're right." Leon wondered if all of his clothing was going to fit Cloud or if he should just dig it all onto the floor to box up for the exchange shop. Obviously he was going to need a few things. And even though the thought of all the blood in the now vacant homes upset his stomach, certainly anything usable was worth being salvaged as long as no extended family objected. But clothing and such weren't exactly valuable. Any heirlooms would be rightfully distributed. Just the essentials, like pants...

"You look like Laguna," Cloud said as soon as Leon had pulled the green shirt over his head. Cloud had politely started folding up blankets to avert his eyes as Leon changed, thankfully. And Leon remembered the scenario quite well - Cloud had always been the one stuck cleaning up while he ran ahead to make sure that Ellone had made breakfast.

"If you put on a dress you'd look like Aya," Leon retorted, knowing full well that it was just the clothing that was tainting his appearance. But if he looked like that moron - he still looked like a moron.

He wondered how early Rikku was going to open that shop.

o-o-o

"Should I be saying 'poor Cloud' or 'poor Aya' or what?" Yuffie asked an hour later from half-underneath the boxes of Leon's clothing that she'd insisted on carrying. All together he'd found five empty cardboard boxes in the attic and had managed to stuff in most everything he secretly hadn't wanted to give to Cloud.

That bit of reasoning wasn't worth telling to Yuffie, if only because he'd never hear the end of it. But aside from the awkward pangs of attraction, Cloud was his best friend and even if he hadn't made it all the way through breakfast to pick a few things out on his own, Leon thought he knew Cloud well enough to make a few choices.

"I guess that even after hearing you tell stories about Ellone and Aya, I never realized just how... Caring, right? How caring she is," Yuffie continued. "She could have let Cloud keep eating, though - the food wasn't that bad."

"I'm sure that Aya and Mrs. Strife were worried, though. To them, Cloud is still fourteen, just like you're still a child to your farther," Leon replied. "Who is probably worried about you."

"Maybe," Yuffie replied. "But... he always let me off to play anyway. And I told him that I was always with you growing up, so... I think he knows."

Leon thought for a moment, looking for a mental picture of Yuffie's father. Yes, hopefully Yuffie had explained that they'd grown up nearly as siblings, not as anything else.

"Squall!"

Both Leon and Yuffie turned half-around to see who had called out. Wishing he had a hand free to raise in greeting, Leon could only manage a slight smile when he saw Rinoa and Garnet following nearly behind them, clothing lumped onto a red wagon.

"Us too," Yuffie said, trying to gesture towards the next block where the clothing exchange was but realizing she could only really swing her body a bit underneath the boxes she still clutched.

"Yuffie!" Garnet squealed happily. "Let's pick out clothing together, okay! I have some of Rinoa's but we don't quite have the same shape."

Leon found himself listening almost too critically to Garnet, again trying to discern if she was seven or sixteen. Or neither. She was one of Ellone's mages, after all, born to be an almost ethereal power for the town. And so was Rinoa. But Rinoa...

"You really look like your father."

Rinoa probably needed a slight sprinkling of tact. But everyone in town did know Laguna. Leon winced - the next block would likely be the longest block of his life.

"No, my clothing looks like Laguna's," Leon corrected. "Because it is."

"Oh, Leon, look... They even have flags out," Yuffie said, glancing back in the direction they were actually attempting to head in. "You said it was Rikku and Yuna and Paine, right?"

"I'm still not sure I trust their fashion judgment," Rinoa commented, walking alongside Garnet who was actually the one pulling the wagon. "Squall, don't you remember them from school? When they bothered going..."

School. Leon hadn't even thought of that. Yuffie had been taught by Aerith who in turn had picked up various things from other residents of Traverse Town, but everyone in Hollow Bastion hadn't had that option.

"Because you never skipped out, yourself," Leon shot back. Rinoa should remember that she didn't exactly have the best attendance record - not a one of them did. There was always something better to do around town than worry about book learning, after all.

Like read books up in the castle.

In the back of his mind, Leon couldn't help but wonder if everything would just keep tying back to the decisions of his youth and if this almighty second chance was only going to rub his face in it.

"Customers!" Leon could hear Yuna's voice from half the block away, the shop's doors already open and waiting for them. The shop, he knew, had been empty nine years before and was just waiting for someone with a grand idea, so it wasn't as if the three girls had really disturbed anything by claiming it.

"Here's how this works," Rikku began once Yuffie had set her two boxes down on the shop floor. "You get credit for what you bring and each thing you want costs part of that credit. If you don't have any credit, you can just buy things but don't worry, things will be really cheap. Um..."

"That's it," Paine interjected. "It's simple."

"All of this is Leon's," Yuffie explained as Leon added the boxes he'd been carrying to the ones that she'd already put down. "Um, I guess I'll have to get my own things later. But Leon, I'll pay you back if..."

Leon nodded as he looked through the shop. Already the women had makeshift racks set up, mainly consisting of poles laced through upright ladders but already holding a sparse amount of clothing.

"Hopefully by the end of the day we'll have a better selection," Yuna commented. "But Squall-Leon, we'll write down your credit total so you don't have to wait around."

He'd been afraid of that. Either he was going to have to get over the mortification of being stuck in Laguna's clothing or die trying.

Yuffie seemed to be sharing in the cosmic patience lesson as she waved to Rinoa and Garnet and headed for the door.

"It's almost too weird, isn't it?" Yuffie asked as they started towards where Yuffie lived almost as though there were no other destinations.

"What?"

"Well, like, I mean, Garnet probably still thinks we're gonna play with dolls after this or something but... Part of me wouldn't mind that but most of me doesn't really recognize her as my friend. As Garnet," Yuffie explained. "I think we're going to have to get to know everyone all over again."

"We're the ones who changed," Leon said firmly.

"They're the ones who didn't," Yuffie added. "I know. It's still weird."

"I didn't say that it wasn't." Leon glanced back, up at where the castle loomed. "Yuffie?"

"Yeah?"

"How about the castle? That might be a good place to..."

"Let's go!" Yuffie announced, abruptly about-facing and heading off in the direction they'd just came from.

"I don't mean now..." Leon began, wondering if Yuffie was really out of hearing range of if she was just ignoring him. But he always felt comfortable with her, as though nine years as orphans together had actually made them siblings.

"You know what's strange?"

"A better question would be to ask what isn't strange," Leon corrected, happy in his assumption that the quickening footsteps that had appeared behind him were indeed attempting to catch up.

"Good point," Zack muttered. "Y'know, you look a little like Laguna in that outfit..."

"No, I don't. I look like my mother," Leon said. "I just happen to be wearing Laguna's clothing because I don't have much of a choice."

"Right..." But Zack apparently realized that the smart answer would be to stay quiet.

"I'm following Yuffie up to the castle," Leon said, pointing ahead of him to where Yuffie was waiting at the beginning of the path. He knew the young ninja had a bountiful supply of energy and when she'd broken off into a sprint, he hadn't been surprised. The thought of sparring and working his own muscles sounded better by the second.

"Looking for anything in particular?" Zack asked. "I know Aerith is going to help in the cemetery. Sephiroth, too. But that shouldn't take all day, right?"

"I don't know." Leon hadn't expected elaborate funeral rights for any of the deceased, but he also hadn't expected them to just get dumped into the ground. However, there wasn't exactly the time or means for anything complex. For lack of euphemisms, they needed to be buried. Mourning, memorials... all that could come later.

"Aerith even spent last night talking to Sheriff Tseng about everyone cooperating," Zack continued. "They're neighbors and grew up as friends even though Tseng is a few years older. For the few weeks that I dated her, he always used to watch me out the window and glare..."

"Is that where Aerith was?" Leon asked, mainly to himself. He'd almost expected her to show up and push him off the bed the night before.

"You'd better not be implying..."

"We're adults, now," Leon said. "I think that's going to be one of the challenges this town will have to face."

"What's what?" Yuffie asked. They'd caught up to her at the base of the castle steps finally though she obviously hadn't heard the entire conversation.

"What you were talking about earlier," Leon explained. "About us not being the people our friends and family remember."

"Oh, yeah," Yuffie said softly before perking up. "Zack!"

"Sephiroth asked that I go up to the castle to check on the generator and make sure it's still running," Zack said. "Apparently it gummed up last night or something. I don't know. I'm certainly not the best choice to look at it. I mean, if it isn't running I probably won't know how to do anything other than give it a good kick."

Ah, that took care of that little explanation. Leon couldn't help but think that Zack was pulling through the entire ordeal quite a bit better than anyone else he'd had a chance to actually pause and talk to. That felt good - that if one person could be okay with everything so quickly that the others would too, in time.

"So he did fix it," Yuffie said, bounding up a couple of steps ahead of the men. "That's good. Maybe if we can get the castle clean, we can make it into apartments or something..."

"Apartments?" Zack asked.

"For everyone suddenly displaced amongst their own families or those who feel exceptionally strange being twenty-five and waking up because their sister disapproved of who was in their bed," Leon said, fairly sure that there was no other explanation that would sound any less wrong.

"I live above a shop," Zack commented. "But the shopkeeper is amongst the dead and I don't think he had much in the way of family. You think I could just take over his shop?"

"Which one?" Yuffie asked. "The old guy who sold weapons? That'd be cool."

"Yes, him," Zack replied. "Well?"

"I don't get to make that decision." Leon wondered exactly who did. Who amongst them got to play divine judge? "Maybe we can start having weekly town votes or something on that sort of thing."

"Who would get to vote?" Zack asked, reaching to push back his hair as the wind blew it out of place.

"We'd have to vote on that, I guess," Yuffie said with a snicker. "I think trying to make things easier just makes them harder."

Nodding, Leon wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to keep talking. Already they were nearly to the castle entrance, door open to invite them in. Sephiroth was the only one dwelling there, as far as Leon knew, and if he was expecting Zack or someone to stop in while he was handling tasks much more suited for his abilities than cleaning house... Leon still didn't like it. Even though the heartless were gone and the town had returned, each minute in the castle made him more and more uneasy.

"Whatever it is, you have to face it," Zack whispered, apparently noticing how Leon was lingering in the sunlight as Yuffie bounced ahead.

"What?"

"This is twice now," Zack said. "Yesterday and... It's not my business, but..."

Without replying, Leon just took a step forward and headed into the darkness.

o.o.o.o.o.o  
Notes: At 20+ hours into KH2, this fic gives me fits with inaccuracy, but it is an alternate-timeline after all and I was expecting for canon to bound off in another direction.  
As always, please check my profile and come visit my website/livejournal for more stories!


	6. of locked doors

Title: Aftershocks   
Author: Kalloway   
Part: 6 of ?  
Disclaimer: I owneth not KH nor any Square character mentioned herein. No profit is being made.  
Warning: Language, future content.  
Rating: M   
Summary: Old habits die hard, old thoughts linger. The mages are tired already. And Leon gets the opportunity of a lifetime.  
Pairings: Are not a serious part of this story yet, sorry.  
o:o:o:o 

Leon almost wanted to laugh once he was inside the castle. It was no different than when he'd left it the day before, save that the air seemed even more still and there was no sound other than the soft splash of the fountain in front of him.

Turning, he saw Zack offering him one last friendly wave before heading over to the lift to the damp bowels of the castle. But if the lift was working without magic, the generator had to be okay.

"Yuffie?" he called, wondering which way she would have gone. Normally he would have checked the library, but if she was looking for anything of value...

Before his mind could complete the thought, he was running for the lift stop. As he stepped onto the first lift, he looked up, both thankful and horrified to see the ninja darting through the passages and lifts a few stories above where he was being gently deposited. He knew where she was headed and he could certainly understand her reasoning.

But if there was anywhere that he really didn't feel like going and certainly didn't want to pry Yuffie away from, it had to be her destination - Ansem's personal suite.

"Yuffie!" Leon stepped into the narrow hallway and mentally let out a sigh of relief when he saw her still carefully picking at the lock on the door.

"Where's Sora when we need him?" Yuffie moaned, pulling the hook she'd been using away from the door. "This thing won't open!"

"Magic," Leon said before he realized he shouldn't have mentioned that little fact at all.

"How do you know that?" Yuffie asked, bouncing up and striding over to Leon. "What spell? I bet I can do it."

"And the key," Leon finished. "Both, at once. He was... secretive."

There. That should hold her. She would have to give up for the time being.

"We'll have to find the key then," Yuffie declared. "But... that can probably wait, can't it?"

"Yeah," Leon replied. "Why don't we check some of the guest rooms or the maid's quarters?"

"I bet there's gold in there," Yuffie bemoaned, giving the door one last look. "And diamonds. And..."

"I don't think anyone in town would want to wear his clothing," Leon commented. "So we can just leave it for now. Remember why we're here."

"Fine," Yuffie said. "Hey, can we pick out rooms, then? We are moving up here, right?"

Leon was silent. He had declared his burning desire to get away from Laguna and Ellone, after all. And there really weren't that many places to go in town, at least not on such short notice.

"Wouldn't it be better to ask Sephiroth first?" Leon asked finally, after they were safely back on the lift and his mind had stopped reciting the scattered words that made up the spell to unbind that strange lock.

"But the castle isn't his, is it? I mean, he does live here but... I don't know," Yuffie declared with her hands on her hips. "Maybe we shouldn't take anything other than food, for now."

"This from someone who was just trying to get the diamonds that Lord Ansem didn't even have," Leon said, a smile forming on his face before he realized what he's just said.

"How do you know?" Yuffie asked as they switched from one lift to the next, her shoes silent on the passage between even as Leon could hear the sound of his own boots. "You were in there once?"

"Yes," Leon said. "Once upon a time."

"Tell me?" Yuffie asked. Smiling at him and dressed in his sister's clothing, she was almost endearing enough to pull the truth from him. But not quite.

"Nothing much to tell," Leon said. "Sorry."

"Right." Apparently Yuffie took that as a cue to be quiet and not get on Leon's nerves any more than she might already be.

"Hey!"

Grabbing onto the back of Yuffie's shirt as she leaned over the side of the lift to see who was below, Leon already knew the voice was Zack's.

"Zack!" Yuffie cried, waving. "Everything okay in the basement?"

"The water is a little high!" Zack replied before waiting for their lift to stop to continue. "But I think it's just a build up from the night. Still, I guess either I can check it later or see if Sephiroth is heading back this way."

"We need to talk to him," Leon said as he finally let go Yuffie. She stuck out her tongue and he did his best not to remind her of all the times when she was young that she'd quite nearly fallen off the lift because she'd wanted to hang over the side.

"About moving in? I don't think he'd mind," Zack said, shrugging. "As long as he has enough privacy and all."

"I'd rather ask," Leon replied.

"I'll move in if you do, Squall," Yuffie chirped before correcting herself. "Leon!"

"Why don't we find some food to take back to the café in town?" Leon suggested. "It's still early and I'm sure they still need canned things."

"Spoilsport," Yuffie retorted as she bounced off towards the kitchens.

"Y'know, if you do want to talk about it...," Zack started once Yuffie was out of sight.

"I don't," Leon replied. "There's no point in dwelling on things I did or didn't do nine years ago."

"Or, since I haven't seen you lingering around anyone but your instant little sister, who you did or didn't do," Zack corrected.

"Zack..."

"You're the one dwelling on it. But you can't go back and change your decision. There's just one direction - forward."

By the time they made it to the kitchens, Yuffie already had half the cupboards flung open.

"Looks like Aerith only scratched the surface here!" she cried, waving. "Let's take everything we can back."

"Just what we can carry," Zack decided. "Remember that someone does live here. And that you'd like to. If no one in town is starving, we can save these rations a little longer."

"Zack has a point," Leon agreed. Despite Zack's sense of humor, Leon did know the soldier was skilled in both tactics and combat. Any advice Zack could give, at least on the battlefield, he would willingly take.

"Mmm. I want some of this jelly," Yuffie said as she dug in the cabinets. "I remember we always had sandwiches with it. Has it really been nine years?"

"Only for some people," Zack said, holding out his hands. "Let's head back and get lunch. Maybe Seph will be there..."

"You're really friendly with him, aren't you?" Yuffie asked. "I was kinda scared of him at first, but..."

"He kept Cloud safe," Leon finished. "Even if they didn't always get along."

Zack smiled and Leon flashed to a fading memory of Cloud chasing after Zack, wanting to hold a sword bigger than he was. That was right - they were friends too.

o:o:o:o

Aerith offered a limp wave to the trio from where she sat in a faded wooden deck chair near the edge of the open-air section of the café.

"Hard at work?" Yuffie asked, bounding by.

"I'm out," Aerith replied softly. "But we have fresh vegetables."

"What?" Leon asked, roughly working the logistics of just how many spells a person would have to cast in order to make just a few plants leap to maturity in 24 hours and then multiplied it by an amount capable of feeding a group of people.

"Yeah... Aya was still there. Ellone collapsed, but she'll be okay when she wakes up," Aerith said. Yuffie came out to collect the jars that Leon was still holding. "Rosa..."

"I thought you were with Sephiroth," Zack said.

"Oh, I was earlier," Aerith explained. "Trying to do too much, I guess..."

"Don't wear yourself out."

"We're going to try to do a field of wheat tomorrow," Aerith replied, frowning. "After that... Whatever Ellone and Cecil decide, I guess."

"Are you sure that you're up to that?" Leon asked. Aerith hadn't done more than that pitiful wave the entire time they'd been talking.

"Don't worry about me," Aerith replied before smiling. "This is what I've always trained to do."

Leon nodded. In a way, he understood. Aerith was a mage. She'd always been a mage. And this was a task for mages. Still, he knew he'd worry. Nine years of making sure she was safe wasn't going to vanish in an instant.

"Well, we brought down some more food from the castle," Zack said as he reached to take Aerith's hand. "Those of us who are only good for grunt work will concentrate on just that."

Aerith laughed. "That isn't all you're good for."

Turning, Leon didn't think he had any part in their flirting. He thought of Aerith as a sister, certainly, and didn't need to think about her involvement with anyone.

Stretching and walking out into the sunshine just past the café, Leon considered heading off to the cemetery to look for Sephiroth. But he knew he couldn't leave Yuffie just yet. And she probably wanted lunch. There had been a few other people clustered in the café, after all, speaking in the hushed tones of those unsure of what would come next.

"Leon!" Sure enough, her voice broke the near-quiet just a moment later. But it was comforting, having someone who would call to him.

He turned, not at all surprised to see her holding two jelly sandwiches, just like they used to get in the castle.

Smiling, he accepted one of them and pointed towards a far picnic bench. They would sit and eat. And then they would see what would come next.

o:o:o:o

Leon looked up at the sound of thunder, completely surprised to see dark clouds gathering towards the horizon. There had been rain in Traverse Town on occasion, but not thunderstorms.

But the rolling wasn't from the mages, Leon knew. Not even together could they call up something like what was brewing. The storm was nature, pure and simple, getting itself back together as well.

Leon smiled when he saw lightning flicker between clouds. Storms had never frightened him.

Then he realized that Yuffie was clinging to his arm.

"I'd forgotten storms," she admitted. "It surprised me a little."

"Nothing to be scared of," Leon reminded her.

"I'm not scared of anything," Yuffie said defiantly. "Storms or monsters or heartless or Cid when he's grumpy. It just surprised me."

"We should get home, though," Leon said. "You to your home, me to mine. Nature has decided that neither of us is going to be moving anywhere today."

"We didn't even find Sephiroth," Yuffie muttered, not letting go of Leon yet. "He's good at hiding."

"He can teleport, if you've forgotten. He's probably the strongest mage we have. We may have just been looking in the wrong places," Leon commented.

"Then let's go back to the castle and wait!"

"No."

"But..." Yuffie began, only to be interrupted.

"Tomorrow is nearly as good as today," Leon said. "Tomorrow I'll pick you up after breakfast and we can check into YuRiPa's shop for clothing and then go track down Sephiroth."

"I can't stay over?"

"Spend some time at home," Leon suggested. He did want to get home to see Ellone. What Aerith had said earlier at the café stuck in his mind. In the back of his memory, he knew that using too much magic at once tended to make her feel faint, but if she'd actually blacked out for any period of time, there was a bit of cause for concern.

The thunder crashed through the sky once more and Leon wasn't surprised as cold, stinging rain started to fall.

"Bye, Leon!" Yuffie exclaimed, letting go of him to dash off towards her house.

"Bye," he replied softly, feeling a little guilty at the relief that welled up in him. Peace. Quiet. Even the rain wasn't that terrible as he walked slowly towards Laguna's house.

He could hear Laguna and Ellone in the kitchen as he walked through the house, not bothering to disturb them as he headed to his room. Things were still strewn all over from earlier, when he and Yuffie had boxed up quite a bit of his clothing. But straightening up was a simple task and in just a few minutes he had things looking as they had been, including the wooden practice sword being returned to rest on his bed.

On the edge of his dresser sat a set of hooks that he'd meant to put up so he could hang it, over his bed but beneath the window. There was no point, now, but nine years ago he'd really just needed to find the hammer that Laguna had misplaced.

"Squall?"

Ellone's voice shouldn't have surprised him, strong over the rain that was still fiercely hitting against his window.

"Just cleaning a bit," Leon replied. Ellone certainly did sound okay. But when he turned to face her, the dark circles under her eyes were telling.

"Packing," Ellone commented, pointing to the piles that had been made by the closet.

"Yes," Leon admitted. "I... care about you and Laguna, but..."

"You've been living on your own up until now, right? Or with the others - I understand," Ellone said. "Laguna and I have talked and we really don't expect you to stay. Just don't you dare go out in this storm."

Thunder crashed overhead, making Ellone jump.

"I'm not going anywhere tonight," Leon replied. "Not with a storm like that. Besides, I'd almost like to see the castle generator last the night once before trying to move there."

"Castle?" Ellone questioned. "Laguna- Laguna told me what the fight was about. You'd..."

"That's history to me," Leon lied.

"I feel silly for asking you about Aerith," Ellone continued. "And I'm a little unsure if I should ask about anyone else..."

"You probably shouldn't," Leon said flatly, turning back to piles he hadn't even quite consciously made.

"Oh, well... Laguna's going to make dinner and, um, I'm going to make sure he doesn't catch as many things on fire as I did this morning."

"You should rest, too," Leon said. "I saw Aerith before lunch and she looked like a zombie."

"But she's amazing!" Ellone replied. "She's strong. Sephiroth, too. I wonder if they're related - they look alike. I should ask..."

As Ellone wandered out of the room, Leon remembered to move his practice sword before flopping onto his bed to listen to the rain. The solitude was welcome and a nice change.

And before his mind could wander too far, he reached down into the space between the bed and his wall, to the very corner that he could just squeeze his fingers into to grasp at cool metal.

Yuffie would kill him if she ever found out. Part of him wished she would. Pulling out the bronze-colored skeleton key, Leon wondered what he should even do with it. Ansem's nice, secluded room could be his, complete with memories of the only time he'd uttered the simple-yet-disjointed spell and clicked the lock open to slip into Ansem's bed if only to be too nervous for anything but a deep kiss and a suggestion of sleep.

After that, it had always been his room of the castle. Creamy whites and reds, royal and inviting, wrapping themselves around the room to spin even more when Ansem's hands had pulled his clothing away to guide his body to a state of arousal that he hadn't even completely understood at the time.

Heat.

The rain was still coming down, hard enough that no one would dare climb up on the rain bucket for fear of slipping in and being soaked. His door was closed. Hopefully either Ellone or Laguna would knock.

And guilt. Every time he let his memory replay those moments, he hated himself more. And every time he used those memories above any other to work his body to release, he was amazed that the heartless hadn't just spirited him away to become one of their numbers.

Minutes later, shaking his head as he cleaned his sticky hands with the edge of a sheet, Leon wondered if he had thrown the last nine years away completely or if there really was no way to escape the past keeping a firm grasp on his mind. And heart.

o:o:o:o

By the time Leon had arrived at Yuffie's house, he wasn't at all surprised to see a gaggle of girls in the yard, talking with Yuffie. The sun was already fairly high in the sky, due in part to Laguna needing a hand patching a hole in the roof that had surfaced midway through the night over Ellone's room.

"Leon!" Yuffie exclaimed, bouncing to her feet. "Hope you don't mind if I take a raincheck. I..."

Glancing at the group, Leon nodded. Yuffie was a young woman and needed to be with her own kind, too, especially the aspiring ninjas of the group.

"It's fine," Leon replied, waving to the few girls he recognized. He could only wonder how they'd react to the gesture, but he also didn't care. Other things were on his mind, like finding Sephiroth. "Tomorrow?"

"Yeah... But if you talk to Sephiroth you had better come tell me right away!"

"I will," Leon said, offering her a wave as well before heading towards the fields. If Sephiroth didn't show, Leon decided, he could at least offer some of his own magic towards the daily task. Ellone would already be there, as would Rinoa and Aerith and the rest of the town's mages.

"Leon, right?"

Leon turned to see who'd spoken to him. He knew who Kain Highwind was quite well, a young but retired ex-dragoon from the capitol who'd moved out with his 'very close friends' Cecil and Rosa to escape a bit of a scandal over his chosen relationships. But Leon didn't really want to say that he'd sometimes secretly watched the man in the mornings, spear flashing in the sunlight.

"Mister Highwind," Leon finally said, a little embarrassed that it had taken so long to reply.

"You're quite the fighter now, aren't you?" Kain commented. "Apparently Ellone babbled quite a bit to Cecil about your exploits while the rest of us were cast into nothingness."

Leon hoped he was smiling. That was Ellone all right.

"Did you need something?" he asked, glancing from the bottom to the tip of the spear that Kain was holding. Golden. He thought of Kain as golden.

"Apparently there's a wayward dragon out past the fields," Kain replied. "I was thinking of heading up a party."

A dragon hunt. Leon remembered being sixteen and on his hands and knees begging Laguna to let him go on a dragon hunt.

"Count me in," Leon said, smiling. "When are we heading out?"

"An hour," Kain replied. "We'll meet at the edge of the fields."

And as Kain headed off towards a different part of town, Leon could only imagine the look that would form on Yuffie's face when she found out that she'd missed a dragon hunt. Right before he would have to duck a very large shuriken.

o:o:o:o   
A/N: Reviews remind me that someone is reading. Because otherwise I forget that I haven't put more words somewhere outside my head. Thank you. (P.S. KH2 ficcage in my journal - see my profile?)


	7. of fallen friends

Title: Aftershocks   
Author: Kalloway Part: 7 of ?  
Disclaimer: I owneth not KH nor any Square character mentioned herein. No profit is being made.  
Warning: Language, blood, future content.  
Rating: M   
Summary: Dragons are not a simple prey. Cloud falls. Leon finds something to occupy his time.  
Pairings: Are likely going to appear in the near future.  
xxxxxx 

"This your first time?" Zack asked, reaching over to run his fingers along some of the decoration of Leon's gunblade.

"Yeah," Leon admitted, happy that he wasn't doing something ridiculous like jumping up and down. He was - in his mind - actually, but that certainly wasn't worth mentioning. "Laguna..."

"Probably with good reason," Zack finished, smiling. "Can I give you a word of advice, then?"

Nodding, Leon wondered if the soldier had any damned clue how appreciated his advice truly was - on anything.

"I was going to mention this anyway... to both you and Cloud," Zack continued. He pointed out towards the place beyond the fields where trees became thicker and wild creatures roamed - a place children were told to avoid and where the warriors amongst them went to hunt in the name of community safety. "This is a team thing. We all do this together. Whatever heroics you think you have planned..."

That was cause for concern? Leon chuckled. He'd already decided that any and all glory could go to the golden Kain Highwind. Just landing a blow or two on the beast would be more than enough to satisfy his ego - at least this first time.

"Hey..." Cloud slid up behind Zack, looking a bit like the soldier's photo-negative - light hair and dark clothing a contrast to Zack's dark hair and tight white shirt. The only thing that the two men had in common was the pair of matching swords glinting in the late-morning sun.

"Looks like Kain called out everyone," Zack said before reaching over to muss Cloud's hair. "He told me that he'd talked to you both. Guess it is about time that Spikey got to fight a dragon!"

"I could send you flying," Cloud said flatly as he reached back for his sword. Leon could read the amusement on Cloud's face though. He knew that his friend was just playing. And the chance to show off to his mentor... Leon knew that Cloud did have something to prove.

"Oh could you?"

Leon could see the sparkle in Zack's eyes as he spoke. A split second later he had to jump out of the way as swords crashed together right in front of him.

Very rarely had Leon ever had a chance to step back and watch Cloud fight. Either he was sparring with his friend himself or Sephiroth was wiping the floor with the pair of them. And Leon was impressed, if only to see two men so well matched, locked in what would have appeared to any other spectator as a fight to the death. The wide smiles on their faces told a different story, however.

What neither of the swordsmen had realized was one of the first things that Leon had considered while watching them swing their weapons into another crashing pause; that thunderstorm had left the ground soaked.

So when Cloud slipped, they both slipped, too focused on trying to outdo the other and not enough on their footing.

"Somehow, I do not feel safe."

Glancing back, Leon realized that the rest of the party had arrived. Beyond Kain's shoulder was Kuja, a bit of a surprise. Leon knew that the actor was also a mage, but he had no clue that he qualified as powerful enough to go along on such an expedition. Though he could understand the mage's discomfort at seeing two of the party half-covered in mud before things had even gotten underway.

The woman at Kain's side only smiled before glancing back over her own shoulder.

"We're waiting on one more," she said.

"He's here," Cloud said quickly, his mouth still parted on the second word when the air crackled beside him.

Leon was half-waiting for the general to slip in the same mud that had two of his finest still scrambling to their feet.

"Sir..." Kain said, saluting quickly in perfect unison with the woman beside him.

"Ah, General..." Sephiroth said, sliding to the woman's side with a rare smile.

"Just Celes, please. If each of us who left the king's army was still called by rank, half this town would be caught in a permanent salute," she replied. "You've learned a few tricks..."

Wanting to keep eavesdropping on the pair, Leon's attention was pulled away by Cloud's smile.

"I'll get him next time."

"I know," Leon replied, answering a questioning nod from Kain with a nod of his own.

They were heading out.

xxxxxx

Tromping out to the edge of the trees didn't take long, and while Sephiroth and Celes spoke softly to one another, Leon stayed quiet. Cloud didn't stray far from his side, most of the mud on his clothing brushed into dark smears that at least made him look like he'd seen a far greater battle than one against his instructor.

Zack kept close to Kuja and Kain, trying to get a little enthusiasm from the pair for his grand idea of reopening the weapons shop.

"How's Ellone?"

"How's Aya?"

Looking at each other and the exact way they chose to break the silence between them, both men started laughing.

"Aya's out working again today... not too concerned about where I am, at least," Cloud said.

"Ellone just seems tired," Leon admitted. "I don't know how long they can keep this up."

"And we have two mages with us, today," Cloud said, gesturing subtly at Kuja and Sephiroth. "We've fought things worse than dragons..."

Leon shook his head. "I'll trust Kain on this. If he thinks seven of us are required, it's probably because seven of us are required."

"I know." Cloud sounded almost like he was going to say something else, but he started softly chuckling instead.

"What?"

"Kuja... I've been wondering how he can walk so gracefully, but that's a float spell, isn't it? He's keeping dry by staying above the mud," Cloud said, pointing down to where the blacks and purples of Kuja's outer robe were swaying just above the earth.

"Yeah," Leon said, having only realized that little fact a few minutes before Cloud. "Makes what we managed to learn seem silly, doesn't it?"

"Float is an elemental defense," Cloud noted.

"So are wings," Leon replied, slipping a hand over to poke at Cloud's back. "You're good at keeping yours hidden, though."

"Hey..."

"Now kids..." Zack dropped a step and slid between them, throwing an arm over each of their shoulders and marching them along. "I think Cloud's caused enough trouble today."

"He started it," Cloud commented.

Leon wanted to laugh. They'd had this fight before, or something similar to it. He'd been ten, Cloud had been eight. There was a toy pop gun involved. And the rest was a little blurry.

Suddenly Kain held a hand out, gesturing for them to stop and stay quiet.

Leon could see Sephiroth's smile as the silver-haired man nodded.

But he definitely couldn't see what the three fighters in the lead had already picked up on. A second later, though, he heard it - a long, almost angry cry echoing through the trees and taking up residence in Leon's head, locking itself in his memory.

Letting go of Cloud and Leon, Zack stepped forward, drawing his sword. Kain pointed.

And then Leon saw the beast that had howled out its existence just a few seconds before. Terror prickled at him, threatening to freeze him in place. Heartless were nothing, no matter their size and strength, compared to the creature that towered above their group and seemed to be moving forward.

By the time he realized he was running along with the rest of the group, the fear had dissipated. This was what he was now - this was what he could do. He was a protector. A fighter. For everyone in town who was struggling to move forward.

This was what he could do.

The dragon looked both old and mean, a male, Leon recounted from the dragonology book he'd absolutely memorized when he was twelve. Horns jutted from its head, curling at the tips with age. And small wings, vestigial, were tattered. A land dragon - perhaps the only thing that had kept the crazed beast from crashing right into town... it just hadn't made it yet.

Leon knew the creature saw them only as dinner. He wondered if he could get a shot off - or even if it would do anything. He knew to aim for the head or neck first and to go for the underbelly once the beast had fallen once. But the back and sides of the dragon's hide was surely too thick for even their swords to do more than chip off ancient scales.

Armor flashing in the sunlight, Kain jumped, spanning the distance between the rest of the party and the dragon in seconds, impaling his spear into the back of the creature's head before being thrown off to the side, landing hard on the ground but mostly upright.

"Kain!" Cloud cried, lunging forward. The dragon turned, suddenly finding Kain a bit less interesting and even stopping the useless clawing at where Kain's spear rested as it spotted the loud appetizer charging it.

"Cloud..." Leon knew Sephiroth's voice well enough to recognize it without turning. "Cloud!"

Cloud froze as if he was being physically restrained, unable to do more than block fangs with his buster sword for the few seconds before Sephiroth and Celes had flanked him, each swinging but not doing enough damage to do more than further infuriate the beast.

Leon had finally landed a blow on the beast, surprised at how easily he was deflected even off what he thought might be a bit of soft flesh. He was thankful when he heard Kuja finishing up a successful spell, though blinding the dragon didn't seem to be doing much good as it thrashed at all of them.

"Dammit," he muttered, glancing over to where Celes had taken a step back, her arm bloodied. And Kain had broken his spear free of the beast only to impale it again, the next blow doing just as little good as the first.

Together, Cloud and Zack were charging forward, swinging their busters opposite one another and trying to bring them together at the creature's neck. Zack slipped as he jumped, managing to smash the flat of his sword into the dragon while Cloud found himself caught by the beast's claws, sharp and deadly despite being attached to slight, withered front limbs.

"Cloud..." Leon connected, getting a shot upward into the dragon's jaw. A rush of blood covered him and he heard the beast cry out in something close to agony. It dropped Cloud, turning instead to blindly search for whatever had struck him.

Kuja hit it with another spell, one that dropped the dragon down and exposed its stomach.

But instead of going for the killing blow like the others were, Leon dropped back and raced for where Cloud was trying to get to his feet.

"Squall," the blond muttered, grabbing at Leon's shoulders as Leon knelt down. There was blood - more blood than there should have been.

"Stay still," Leon replied, pushing Cloud down. "You're hurt."

"But..."

"Let me see." Pulling the remains of Cloud's shirt up, he could hear the cries of victory behind him. He wasn't even sure how Cloud had managed to try to get up. The scratches were deep, gashed through skin and muscle, across Cloud's side. The dragon had done to Cloud what Cloud had intended to do to the dragon. "Cloud?"

He was met with silence as he attempted the first healing spell he could manage to find the words for.

"Cloud?"

Now Sephiroth was behind him. And Kuja. And Kain... He was healing what he could, but Yuffie had always been more of a healer than he was. So was Cloud. Usually he concentrated on hitting things...

"Cloud..."

That was about when Sephiroth pushed him away and vanished in a painfully sharp crackle.

"Leon." Zack was with him, guiding him off the wet ground to turn and see the equally decimated dragon, midsection split open. Celes had pulled part of her outfit free to wrap her arm and she offered Leon a silent but understanding half-smile.

"He'll be okay," Zack continued. "Don't ever doubt what Sephiroth can do."

Leon couldn't disagree. There wasn't a single other person anywhere in his mind that he would trust more explicitly with Cloud, other than perhaps Aerith. And even Aerith had limits - certainly one of them being that she couldn't teleport.

"Poor noble beast," Kuja noted, finally standing on the soft ground as he leaned down to rub the top of the dragon's head. "I doubt this lost one will be the last to trouble us."

"I agree," Kain said. "We did well this time around."

"But Cloud..."

Kain smirked, pulling up the thin chainmail he wore and also slipping up the shirt he had beneath it to show long, white scars crossing his stomach in an interruption of the tan of his skin. Not so golden underneath.

Leon reached to touch the trail of scars. "You..."

"Anyone," Kain said, "regardless of skill or luck, risks everything when dealing with dragons."

xxxxxx

Even Laguna had left the house by the time Leon made it back, a little surprised at how sore his body was from just that little excursion. Despite thinking that he and Cloud had somehow become stronger thanks to their time spent battling legions of heartless, neither one of them had done more than climb to the skill level of their mentors.

Leon tossed his clothing into the laundry tub, running cold water as he continued stripping. Everything washable went in, making the water a grotesque pink as both Cloud's blood and the dragon's blood started to lift from the fabric.

Cloud. He knew he wasn't ready to share a bed with his friend but he couldn't deny the panic that had gripped him when Cloud hadn't responded to his voice. And the feeling of utter defeat when Sephiroth had whisked Cloud away. He didn't even want to understand the depth of the relationship between the two men - Cloud hadn't really tried to explain either.

His fingers were numb by the time he pulled his clothing out of the water, draping each piece half over the sides of the tub. Ellone would want to wash it all again, he knew. Thankfully Laguna had loaned him a few more sets of clothing, though stopping off to see what the girl gang had assembled sounded more and more like a good idea.

Yuffie would forgive him. And he needed something to occupy his mind until he knew Cloud was somewhere that he could go and not be in the way. Hopefully Sephiroth had taken him to see Doc N, perhaps the most skilled healer in town and certainly the most qualified to take needle and thread to Cloud's stomach.

With a new shirt and his leather pants and jacket, Leon decided that he really did need to find both an extended wardrobe - and lunch. While Kain had offered Leon a share of the dragon's tasty heart, Leon found himself quickly refusing. No matter what sort of delicacy it was, Leon wanted to wash his hands, quite literally, of the beast.

Knocking the drying mud off his boots as he left the house, Leon headed for the cafe. Halfway, he heard a joyous yell followed by several more. Turning in his path, he headed towards the river that ran along the town and helped fill the pools around the castle.

Fish. They were yelling about fish. Not just a few fish, either, from what Leon saw when he made his way to the docks. Many fish, as though they'd received the first blessing for their second chance at living.

Already someone had started a fire and was roasting some of the catch. And amongst the men and women gathered along the riverbank, Leon quickly spotted Cid, still flanked by Vincent and Shera.

"Cid!" Leon called, sliding down the bank to where the three sat, each with a fishing pole in hand. Already Cid had a bucket of fish shoved between his body and Shera's.

"Leon! Come to catch a few fish with us?" Cid asked. "Shera, give Leon your damned pole and go cook some of these up."

"Of course," Shera replied, smiling weakly as she offered her pole up to Leon. "Pleasant fishing, Squall."

Leon didn't bother to correct her. He could already imagine how delicious the river's bounty would taste, cooked just enough to be warm but not overdone and dry.

"Weren't you with Kain Highwind?" Vincent asked, glancing over at Leon as he sat down.

"Dragon," Leon said quickly. "Yeah."

"A dragon!" Cid laughed. "So you found it. Did..."

"Cloud was hurt," Leon interrupted, getting that statement out of the way. "I don't know anything else."

"Leon..." Vincent sat quiet for a moment. "That was an accepted risk."

"That's what Kain said," Leon replied. "I'm... trying not to worry."

"Then you're in the right damned place," Cid announced. "Fishing is completely free of any fucking care in the world!"

"Cid, show a little compassion," Vincent said, before falling completely quiet as the end of his fishing rod bounced and dipped a couple of times.

Leon shook his head. He knew well enough that Cid was showing compassion in the only way that Cid knew how.

And he was quite thankful when Shera handed him a crispy chunk of fish.

xxxxxx

With a ristra of fish slung over his shoulder, Leon chuckled as he passed by YuRiPa's shop. The door was open and beckoning to him, but he didn't dare just march in complete with fish.

In fact, while sitting in relative silence with Cid and Vincent, he'd done quite a bit of thinking and decided on a slightly better plan for action. The first thing he needed to do was talk to Sephiroth about living in the castle. There was no point in gathering clothing that he would only have to move.

And to find Sephiroth, Leon knew that he'd have to find Cloud.

But not until he'd done something with the fish.

His own house was still quiet when he slipped through the back door and left the fish in the seemingly cool-enough ice chest. So far, the power had been flighty and flickering, but enough that perishable food was finally an option.

And without any other thought in his mind, Leon locked the door and headed back across town in hope of finding Cloud.

xxxxxx   
Notes: Reviews are always appreciated. Thank you so much for reading!


	8. of changed directions

Title: Aftershocks   
Author: Kalloway   
Part: 8 of ?  
Disclaimer: I owneth not KH nor any Square character mentioned herein. No profit is being made.  
Warning: Language, blood, future content.  
Rating: M   
Summary: Selflessness vs. selfishness. Zack.  
Pairings: Yes, the author wishes to know, herself.  
°°°°°° 

By evening, Nusakan had run off the group waiting outside the clinic, leaving Leon restless and likely more awake than he should have been.

Nusakan hadn't offered any information beyond a generic 'he's resting' - a statement that left the lot of them frustrated. Even Kain frowned before leaving, heading off with his housemates, Cecil and Rosa, on either side of him.

"Don't suppose you have any sense of humor left..." Zack slid up beside Leon, draping an arm over Leon's shoulder to steer him off towards the edge of town.

"Why?" Leon asked. The sun had set and the air was getting brisk, yet Zack was warm against him.

"When you were talking to Ms. Celes, Doc N tried to shoo a few off us off towards the cemetery," Zack explained, wincing. "Apparently he's ready for a few fresh graves."

Leon rolled his eyes - it figured. His closest friend had nearly been fatally injured and the task at hand involved gravedigging.

"Wasn't Sephiroth doing that?" Leon asked as they walked.

"Yeah, he was," Zack replied. "But only at the rate Doc N had bodies for them. You want a bunch of open graves out there?"

"No," Leon said softly. The logic did make sense. And certainly, Doc N had plenty of other things to take care of before the tedious writing of death certificates and whatnot. Like patching up those who had fought dragons...

"Think we can do three tonight, then?" Zack questioned as they neared the barely lit cemetery.

"Only if we have shovels," Leon shot back. He wasn't sure how Sephiroth had been digging, but Sephiroth was their great General, after all. Leon wouldn't have been surprised if Sephiroth could just command the dirt to move.

"Caretaker's shed," Zack said quickly. "We have our own permission to break in, since the caretaker is on the to-do list."

"Now you're pushing it." Leon shrugged Zack off of him before heading off towards the shed.

"If you're worried about Cloud..." Zack ran a couple of steps to catch up.

"How couldn't I be?" Leon asked, his voice raised ever so slightly. He didn't even pause to consider that Zack didn't know the level of his camaraderie with Cloud - how things had changed over the years yet stayed the same. And certainly, Zack didn't know about the kiss that never should have been.

"Don't underestimate Doc N. Or Sephiroth," Zack said harshly as he grabbed Leon's jacket and pulled him to a dead stop. "Cloud will be fine."

There was a pause. Leon wanted to make a fist and just punch Zack, but he knew his proficiency wasn't in hand-to-hand combat. Never had been. And Zack was a trained soldier, after all, who seemed to be in perfect shape despite the passage of time.

"Besides," Zack said, "if he dies, I'll kill him."

Leon didn't laugh.

"Besides," Zack tried again, "if he dies, I'll never speak to him again..."

"I don't know," Leon said, pulling free of Zack's grip and trying not to comment on Zack's attempt at humor. "I mean, I just don't get it. Cloud didn't explain all of it, but they aren't human any more. So why did he get hurt so badly?"

"Cloud and Sephiroth?"

"Right... you weren't there - you haven't seen..."

Leon found himself staring at the rows of gravestones dotted with white marble angels.

"Zack, they have wings."

°°°°°°

Over the years, Leon had grown somewhat accustomed to waking up in strange places. Normally, he was able to piece together his whereabouts in a matter of seconds.

However, before he opened his eyes, he knew that the body beside his wasn't Yuffie's and the bed wasn't his. He wasn't supposed to wake up with anyone other than Yuffie. For a split-second, he thought about reaching out for her or calling her name - but she was safe.

Hollow Bastion.

Home.

Which didn't answer the main question, at all.

He had to think back - quickly, before... The weight next to him moved.

The dragon. Cloud. Fish. Gravedigging at midnight with Zack... They had sat on an ancient slab that said only 'Garland' to watch the sun rise as if the changing colors of the sky could not be more amazing.

However, Leon decided, as beautiful as the sunrise had been, he still didn't quite remember settling into bed with Zack.

And Yuffie he could deal with, no matter what strange thing had happened for them to end up sharing quarters at the end of the day. Same with Aerith, or Cid, or Cloud...

But Zack was another matter. Maybe - maybe he never needed to mention it again. As he rolled over, Leon was happy to at least still be dressed, save for his jacket. He hadn't done anything too stupid, at least.

"Hey-" Zack's voice stopped him dead. "Sorry. You basically passed out on the sofa and dang, I've slept on that sofa..."

Leon blinked twice before being able to focus on the rumpled, half-awake and slightly past half-naked Zack. Who was smiling.

"I don't remember," Leon admitted. "I barely remember leaving the cemetery."

"We added to the holes," Zack mumbled. "And your back wouldn't have forgiven me if I'd let you sleep on that sofa. Though I can't see your back having noticed a little more awful pain, if you feel anything like I do."

"Yeah," Leon slid out of the bed. At least it was only a dull ache. He was in the best shape of his life, thankfully, and a little menial labor hadn't been so bad. "I should go... Home."

"Moving to the castle?"

"I didn't get a chance to ask Sephiroth," Leon replied. Between the entire dragon incident, the strangeness after, and Cloud... "Cloud..."

"Probably can't have visitors yet," Zack interrupted. "Though we could try."

"Yeah." Leon glanced around for his jacket. He had to have left it in the other room. Dirt was smeared on his shirt - Zack apparently hadn't minded a little grime in his bed. And he knew he should probably be thankful, in the end.

There was an awkward pause.

"Y'know, there is another apartment," Zack said. "Where the shopkeeper lived. He didn't - er, there isn't much to clean up."

Leon nodded. It seemed like a good idea. Somehow Zack knew that the castle just wasn't a good idea. Knew that Leon wouldn't be safe from the past and his lingering memories. From himself.

And besides, in town he'd be so much closer to Cloud.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Leon realized that Cloud had to be just fine - Sephiroth would have come unexpectedly visiting, otherwise. Or Aerith. Or Yuffie. Or even Aya.

"We can split his swords," Zack commented, still smiling. Leon tried to smile. He'd been so caught up in his revelation that he'd almost forgot that Zack was still talking about possible living arrangements.

But the thought was amusing - Leon did want to try his hand with a broadsword or two, instead of his well-worn gunblade.

Before he'd thought of anything to say, Leon noticed that even though his mind had wandered, his gaze was still locked on Zack and the scars on Zack's right shoulder that broke a near-impossible tan.

"Get dressed," Leon said. "We should go see about breakfast."

°°°°°°°°

"It seems to be afternoon," Zack noted as they walked towards the café. "And we should raid the cash drawer when we get back - now that there's some food to buy, it might be better. Do you cook?"

"I cook," Leon said. "Had to. Between Cid and Aerith, we wouldn't have survived otherwise."

Zack laughed before stretching his arms over his head and knitting his fingers, letting his hands rest on the back of his head as he looked upward.

"So you're serious about selling weapons?" Leon asked after another minute passed. The sky was an overcast grey - apparently the sun wouldn't shine on them for more than a day at a time. Fitting.

"Why not?" Zack questioned in response. "We're a town of warriors. Everyone needs weapons."

"True."

"And the old man didn't have any family. I helped him out on weekends, so I know a few things," Zack continued. "It'll be a good living."

"And work is work."

"Yeah."

Leon couldn't help the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Even if Zack hadn't suggested anything more than a shared building and a working relationship, Leon well remembered that even in the worst of times, everyone had a hidden agenda.

"Squall!" His mind went blank for a few seconds until Leon figured out who was calling to him. Still looking much too young to have two children in their teens let along their twenties, Cloud's mother had stepped into their path.

"Ms. Strife." Zack bowed before offering her his hand. Leon just stared - at one time, she'd looked young enough to be Aya's twin sister. Now she looked no older than Cloud. He swallowed hard - certainly she couldn't be getting younger.

Cloud's mother giggled as she let Zack kiss her hand.

"You should marry my daughter," she said with a wink. "Would be good for her. She wants to be a sheriff, of all things."

"Ms. Strife..." Leon began, onto to receive a firm knock on the shoulder.

"You call me 'Mama'," Cloud's mother said sharply, her tone completely different in a second. "All those years of trying to get me to marry your father..."

Leon had completely forgotten until the words were out of her mouth. He laughed. Hard. Poor Laguna had bungled every situation that had painstakingly been set up to get the two single parents together.

"So how is the patient?" Zack asked, interrupting them both.

"Resting at home," Cloud's mother replied. "General Sephiroth brought him home a few hours ago and is sitting with him. He has to be so happy to have the General's attention, you know. Cloud always did look up to the man."

Leon swallowed hard. Obviously, Cloud's mother did not know quite everything about her son. That or she thought the subject improper for passing conversation.

"They seem to be quite friendly," Zack added in quickly, obviously on the same wavelength as Leon. After the discussion in the cemetery about just what Sephiroth and Cloud had become, Zack had at least adopted the notion that the two couldn't easily be parted entirely.

"And you two, Squall and Sergeant Zack..."

"Just call me 'Zack', ma'am," Zack interjected.

"Squall, Zack... Thank you both for helping Cloud yesterday," Cloud's mother managed to pull them both into the same hug, which she held for much longer than necessary.

"He would have done the same for either of us," Zack managed as he slipped from her grasp. Leon nodded. Cloud would have willing given up his life to protect either one of them - in a way, he'd already nearly done just that.

"So you two come visit Cloud this evening, okay?" Cloud's mother continued. She still was grasping onto Leon's sleeve, but he didn't mind. He'd grown up around her, and in a way he did consider her a sort of surrogate mother. Certainly no replacement for his own, but when he had needed the sort of emotional support that Laguna just couldn't give, she'd always been there for him.

"We will, Ms. Strife," Zack replied. "We'll bring him a gift. What do you think he'd like?"

"Stuffed chocobo," Leon said before anyone could say another word. "From the toy store. Cloud always wanted to go to the main kingdom and ride a chocobo."

Cloud's mother laughed and clapped her hands together. "Well, he's a little old, but it's perfect, isn't it? You know him so well. But... even though he's younger, you were always together."

Zack frowned. "Were you on your way somewhere, Ms. Strife?"

"Oh! Yes, I was..." Brushing the hug-induced wrinkles from her dress, Cloud's mother glanced down the road. "I'll see you boys later!"

Leon watched her as she left, not entirely sure he liked Zack's way of getting rid of her. But his place to comment was elsewhere - Cloud's mother had been on her way somewhere and likely would have talked all day otherwise. And he was far too fond of her to shoo her off.

"Sorry," Zack mumbled once she was a few blocks away. "Nothing against her - just her idea of me marrying Aya."

Leon smirked. That made enough sense.

"So, to breakfast?"

"If no one else interrupts us," Leon answered. "Except... It's lunch time."

°°°°°°°°

Buying a stuffed chocobo from a robotic cat shouldn't have been overly disturbing, compared to other things he'd been through, yet somehow, Leon couldn't help but feel even more uneasy than before.

Zack had insisted on carrying the toy beast, tucked under one arm until they got back to the weapons shop.

"It's not bad," Zack said as he opened the door to the other apartment - directly across the small hallway from his own. "Just pack everything up that you can't use and the rest... Like I said, the old man had no family."

"I don't know," Leon admitted once he stepped into the apartment and glanced around. Everything seemed well-kept, and certainly moving into a place with furnishings and such would be sensible. More than once in the past, he and Aerith had needed to go scrounging for things as simple as dishes.

"Why not?"

"This is all so fast." There. Leon had said it. But he didn't feel any better. And then he did the safest thing he could think of - he diverted everything. "Maybe we should worry about everyone else for a while. Fix things. I mean..."

"As if a few tons of slightly-tough dragon meat are nothing?" Zack interrupted. "You're doing your share. But you need to think of yourself for once."

"But..."

Zack was close to him now - close enough that Leon took a step back and hit the wall. Again. It was happening again.

"You can't single-handedly help everyone," Zack said softly before turning and walking across the room. "We're all having the same thoughts... Those of us who are... were... - I don't know - in the army..."

Flopping down on the sofa as if he belonged, Zack let out a noise that was a cross between a sigh and a moan. "Some of us knew that Ansem was doing something in there. But we looked the other way because we weren't ordered to question him."

That... was it?

Leon felt exceptionally stupid. He'd taken everything the wrong way. Zack couldn't handle his guilt or regrets either - not yet. They all had something...

"Zack?" Leon asked as he walked over to look around the kitchen.

"Yeah?"

"I think I could live here," he said firmly. "At least for awhile."

"Thought so," Zack replied. "And if you look, there's a spare bedroom - plenty of room for Cloud once his guts decide to stay in his body."

Considering chuckling, Leon glanced over to the display of swords on the wall. Not only had the owner been a merchant, but an avid collector. The more Leon looked, the more he realized that weapons were everywhere in the apartment. There was even an ancient, marred broadsword shoved up on a kitchen shelf that any woman would have put her painted plates upon.

"Hmm..." Leon started opening cabinets, almost disappointed to find dishes in most of them.

"Spare room," Zack said. He'd sat up at some point and was peering over the back of the sofa. "Why do you think I suggested splitting this stuff with you?"

"Everyone..." Leon murmured before solidifying his thoughts. It wasn't fair in the least to keep such a stash even amongst two people - especially when Leon wasn't sure why Zack was being so friendly to him anyway. He knew and understood that circumstances made people latch on to unlikely allies, but... "We should share these with the town. Celes... Sephiroth..."

"And Cloud," Zack finished. "Kain and Cecil. Okay, you have a point."

Leon leaned back against the kitchen counter and tried to remember back to sunlit days in the library, when Cloud would sneak a pair of rapiers from Lord Ansem's collection and they'd attempt to battle up and down the stairs until firm hands would steal those rapiers back before sending them off to sweep stone floor as punishment.

And yet they kept doing it, every weekend. In a way, Leon knew he'd enjoyed the punishment just as much, getting to see normally off-limits sections of the castle as he swept or polished or dusted or... He wondered if Cloud remembered the first time they were sent to different sections of the castle to work.

Why he'd ever thought that Cloud hadn't noticed - noticed everything - that he could only blame on youth.

He had latched onto Ansem. Cloud had chased after Sephiroth.

"Radio transmissions to Leon..." Zack leaped over the back of the sofa and landed squarely in front of Leon, abusing the open-space of the apartment to its fullest potential.

"Sorry," Leon said quickly. "I was just remembering when Cloud and I would swordfight in the castle."

"You and that castle..." Zack quickly cut himself off. "Nevermind. But how about we take Cloud a sword, too? In case he doesn't like the stuffed chocobo."

Finally, Leon managed to laugh. He could just picture Cloud laying in bed, weakly jabbing at the toy bird with a miniature buster sword.

"Short sword?" he suggested after a moment. "Nothing too heavy for him yet."

"Perfect!" Zack exclaimed as he turned towards the door. "Pick one out. I'll be right back."

°°°°°°°°

Somehow, Zack had yet again ended up carrying the stuffed toy while Leon ended up toting an ornate gift-sword with a bell tied on one end - the thing Zack had gone off to find.

Leon chuckled as the breeze made it ring. Despite being small, it had a sharp, clear sound. It fit Cloud. And certainly, neither Aya nor Cloud's mother would be able to ignore the noise.

In a way, he couldn't help fear that they were creating a monster. Well... more of one.

The precise magic by which both Cloud and Sephiroth could keep their wings hidden was an utter mystery to Leon. He assumed that Nusakan knew about their abnormalities, but he didn't know if Cloud had told his mother or sister.

The sun was setting in the distance when they finally made their way to Cloud's house, twisting from the more business-filled part of town to where the residential area was.

Zack knocked at the door - three quick raps that echoed in the cool evening air.

Sephiroth was the one who opened the door, his hair pulled back into a loose ponytail that hung sloppily over the casual clothing that looked forced and awkward on his frame.

"Who is it?" Cloud's mother appeared in the doorway a moment later. "Oh! Come in you two!"

"We brought..." Leon held up the sword, the bell lashed to the tip jingling before he could finish speaking.

Sephiroth chuckled. Cloud's mother giggled and snatched it away.

"I was just commenting that he needs a bell to ring when he needs something and..." She turned and yelled into the depths of the house. "Aya! Forget the bell!"

"Do come in," Sephiroth said as he stepped aside. "Cloud's awake and already stir crazy. With four of us, we could at least play cards."

Zack nodded and held out the toy chocobo in front of him. "Lead the way!"

°°°°°°°°   
A/N: This fic... needs to get laid... so damned badly...


	9. of something real

Title: Aftershocks   
Author: Kalloway   
Part: 9 of ?  
Disclaimer: I owneth not KH nor any Square character mentioned herein. No profit is being made.  
Warning: Language, blood, future content.  
Rating: M   
Summary: A marker of a week. Rinoa. Cloud.  
Pairings: Yes, the author wishes to know, herself.  
°°° 

Three days later, Leon had finished cleaning, moving, and otherwise changing everything in his life so that he lived, completely and fully above the weapons shop in the apartment across from Zack.

Which was why he was eating a warm, hearty dinner at Laguna's anyway. As much as he wanted to be away from Laguna and Ellone, he didn't want to be away from them in other contexts. Actually, he had never realized just how intelligent Ellone really was. Besides helping him hone a few of the spells he'd shown her, she'd been perfect to help him pack. She didn't ask questions, other than to decide if things really needed to be kept.

He didn't keep much.

"How's Cloud?" Laguna asked, dropping half of his forkful of carrots on his lap. "Eep!"

"Good," Leon replied. He was going to head back over, after dinner, but he was waiting to announce that once things managed to get more awkward.

He knew what was coming. He kept talking.

"Sephiroth has been sitting with him most of the time."

"The General certainly has a different edge to him," Laguna said. "Not soft, just... very protective. But those two... were together when the world... stopped?"

"Yeah," Leon replied, almost amused at Laguna's wording.

"Are they... boyfriends?" Laguna blushed at his own question.

There it was. Leon wondered if it would be more appropriate to move his plate to hit his head against the table or just stand up and find a suitable spot on the wall.

Then again, he wasn't exactly sure how to answer that, either.

"They might have gotten back together," he finally said.

Laguna knocked his juice glass over.

"Oh!" Ellone jumped up to run over to the sink for the dishtowel. "Um..."

She mopped at the juice in silence while Leon tried not to meet Laguna's nervous glances.

He was going to have to break down and let Zack make him dinner. It would be safer.

"So you're going to be working with Sergeant Zack?" Ellone finally asked. "That's good. Where did you work while, um... Well, you know."

Leon shrugged. "You name it, I probably did it. Washed dishes, fixed roofs, moved furniture, whatever. Aerith took in laundry once we could afford a machine. Cid at least had his gummi ships to actually earn an income."

"I'll have to thank him," Laguna said quickly. "He must have been a good influence."

Table or wall. The question remained.

"And Uncle Laguna is putting out the first new issue of the paper soon," Ellone added. "We might need paperboys again."

Of all the things Leon had nearly forgotten about - delivering papers at daybreak (with Cloud at his side, wearing those awful metal skates that went over his shoes because he couldn't afford a bike yet) had to have been near the top of the list. It was why he knew the town so well. Why he'd been able to go right into the wealthy district and find the people he wanted to find.

"I should probably be going." His plate was empty. "I promised Cloud that I'd stop by."

"Say hello to Aya for me," Ellone replied quickly as she tossed the soaked towel at the sink and sat back down. "Tell her to call me about going to the clothing place."

Messenger service. Done that, too.

"I will," Leon said as he stood. "Goodnight."

"Night," Laguna echoed, still looking just a little uncomfortable.

Once out of the house, Leon stretched and looked up at the setting sun. Life was going on. Things were calming down. He and Zack were planning a grand re-opening for the weapons shop in a few days and he knew that after checking in on Cloud, he'd likely be up all night cleaning and re-arranging things to match Zack's apparently unparalleled vision for the place.

Cloud had been suitably amused at the stuffed chocobo and sword, thankfully.

The walk to Cloud's mother's house didn't take terribly long - likely not long enough. In his memory, it was a real trek, even on his bike (where was it, anyway? Laguna's shed?). But youth did tend to make distances that much longer and anticipation always...

Aya had the door open before he could even knock.

"Saw you coming," she said hurriedly. "Good timing, as the General is insisting on taking us out to dinner as Cloud has become... fairly annoying."

"Cabin fever," Leon diagnosed without even seeing the patient.

"Keep him entertained," Aya ordered. "And help yourself to the fridge."

"I'm the babysitter, now?" Leon asked. He wanted to sigh.

"Yes!" Cloud's mother appeared in the doorframe. "Now Aya, stop giving Squall such a hard time and let him in the house."

"Sorry," Aya said softly as she stepped aside. "But hey, are you going to have any really good sales when you open shop? I want to learn to fight."

"Yeah," Leon said. He could almost imagine Aya with a gun or sword. And then she could be a sheriff like she wanted. "Sure. And Ellone wants you to call her about getting clothing."

"Right." Aya closed the door and smiled.

Leon shook his head as he knocked once on Cloud's bedroom door before opening it. He'd already managed to get over the strangeness of a grown man surrounded by the leftovers of his youth. Still, asleep with one hand clutching the stuffed chocobo, he didn't look much older than thirteen.

"You're going to be easy to watch," Leon whispered as he grabbed one of the adventure books from the pile beside Cloud's bed and opened it to the first page. He'd read it, he knew, but he didn't remember a single thing about it.

"Sleep spell."

Leon looked up to see Sephiroth standing in the doorway in a nice set of civilian clothing.

"He tried escaping again."

"Wouldn't you?" Leon asked as he set the book down.

"After hearing about you and Zack and the weapon shop, yes," Sephiroth admitted. "But we can talk later. I have two lovely ladies to take on a date."

Leon didn't trust him. Not at all. He'd heard too many stories from other Traverse Town residents about a silver-haired man who'd stormed through their worlds leaving destruction in his wake.

But for the time being, he could read and watch Cloud, who had three more days in bed and two weeks after that of completely limited movement.

He was nearly halfway through the book when Cloud finally stirred.

"Morning," he said as he set the book down.

"Sleep spell?" Cloud muttered as he opened his eyes. "Bastard."

"Sephiroth said you tried to escape," Leon explained. "He probably thought it was for the best."

"Mom probably made him," Cloud replied as he blinked a few times and reached to touch the bandages on his mid-section. "She's the one who caught me."

Leon was not wholly surprised. Cloud's mother had always been very good at keeping Cloud from getting out of the house, just not always good enough.

"You're reading that?" Cloud questioned a moment later when he got a good look at what Leon was reading.

"I'm starting to remember it," Leon commented, tempted to chuckle. "But aren't these nothing compared to what we've been through?"

"Yeah," Cloud admitted. "Never thought about it that way. Should probably give them away, anyway. I'm not going to read them again."

"I wonder if anyone is going to want to read adventure stories for a little while..."

"I don't know," Cloud said. "Are there dragons in it?"

Leon tried not to smile. "No, not this one."

He handed it over, not bothering to mark his page. The ending of the book didn't matter.

"You know what we're going to have to do," Cloud said as he flipped the book over to read the back.

"What?" Leon asked, giving Cloud a few seconds to frown at the jacket and toss the book to the end of his bed.

"Go find another dragon."

Wanting to laugh, Leon only shook his head. That was the Cloud he remembered, who would fall and trip and stumble but still want to keep going. For awhile, after hearing about Cloud's deals with the dark god of another world, Leon had been afraid that he'd lost his friend forever. But if...

"On a really dry day," Cloud added.

Finally, Leon chuckled.

"Okay," he said. "We'll bring Cecil, too. Do you know him?"

"Only from listening to the adults talk when we were younger," Cloud admitted. "I wonder if anyone will care if there are three of them sharing that house now."

"Old habits die hard," Leon commented. "People will talk about anything they find interesting."

They sat in silence for a minute, neither one entirely sure where the conversation should go. Leon had a dozen things he wanted to ask or tell Cloud about, but for some reason the words just didn't come. He kicked back a bit in the chair.

"Cards?" Cloud finally asked, gesturing to a deck on the dresser across the room. Leon hadn't noticed them there, but he hadn't really looked, either. The other night, when he'd been partners with Zack, they'd stumbled home so late in the night that he remembered close to nothing about it the next morning. Certainly, he wouldn't have remembered where a deck of playing cards had ended up.

That just seemed to be a Zack thing, Leon assumed. It wasn't terrible, and he knew he could afford a little irresponsibility after so many years of having to worry about the needs of others before his own.

"Cards," Leon agreed as he got up to get the deck.

°°°

"One week," Leon said to the wind as he walked through the cemetery. He didn't let his gaze linger on the freshly turned earth to his far left where grass seed had not even had time to root despite being scattered by some of the town's children who didn't know of anything else to do with themselves.

The town had never been particularly large - the school had never had more than three teachers at one time. It had never needed more than three. But two of them had not come back from nothingness, and the third was now too aged to deal with a classroom of children in the bodies of adolescents and teenagers who looked like adults but knew little past playing.

A week had passed before Leon had even thought about it. Time was moving onward. He could recall that feeling from Traverse Town - a sudden realization that days were slipping by because everything had reached a workable balance. Or, perhaps, that he was home.

Looking up, to the sky, Leon could see the castle clearly rising above the rest of the town. That was one thing that everyone had decided to wait on. Other than Sephiroth, who continued to look after the machinery between shifts looking after Cloud, who was equally temperamental, no one chose to linger near the structure.

Leon wasn't sure that it was any sort of fear or apprehension though - the more he thought about, the more he realized that most of the town just needed to worry about themselves for a bit before worrying about empty buildings and the castle and everything other than surviving. The dead were buried, and there was enough food. No dragons lurked nearby and everyone had clothing thanks to Yuna, Paine and Rikku's efforts.

He paused in front of his mother's marble angel before reaching to touch its cheek.

"Brought you these," he said as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a strand of glass beads. There had been a bit of guilt upon finding them in Yuna's grasp, but he knew his mother would forgive one not-handmade gift. And Yuna had sold them for a decent price, almost as if she knew.

Looping the beads over the angel's head and straightening them quickly, Leon turned to head back into town. No reason existed to linger in the cemetery, after all.

"Squall!"

He looked over to see a woman running between headstones, her long skirt billowing around her to make her look almost ethereal. In the fading daylight, she looked beautiful.

"Rinoa." Smiling, Leon paused to wait for her.

"Squall...Leon, ah, um." Rinoa still sounded like a teenaged girl, Leon noted quickly. "Ellone was looking for you and I volunteered to come find you."

"Oh," Leon muttered. In a way, that was a little better than Rinoa looking for him on her own. As attractive as she was, she was still fifteen inside. "About the school thing? There's going to be a discussion for that tomorrow evening."

Rinoa shook her head. "Nope! All the mages are meeting in the square and Ellone wanted you to come. You're not a mage, are you?"

Leon paused for a moment. He certainly did know a few spells, but he wasn't a mage.

"No," he said as he reached to take her hand almost without thinking - the sort of thing he'd do for either Aerith or Yuffie when it was getting dark or raining, because no matter how well either of them could defend themselves, contact was the most reassuring thing he could imagine. "I know a few spells, but I'm not a mage."

"Okay." Rinoa took his hand and smiled. "Can I ask you a question?"

"You're going to ask no matter what I say," Leon surmised as he gave her a bit of a pull-start towards town. Otherwise, they were going to stand in the same spot, on top of the tomb marked only as 'Garland' until the sun rose again.

"Hmm. You're right. So... what are other worlds like?" Rinoa seemed almost excited about the answer, as though he'd been on wonderful adventures and hadn't had to do his best every day to keep alive.

"The food is different," he replied after a half-dozen steps. "And there are different intelligent races out there, not just people who look like us."

"Did Lord Ansem know about them?" Rinoa asked quickly. She glanced up at the castle and mis-stepped, almost falling as Leon kept moving forward.

"Are you okay?" Leon asked as he grabbed her, catching her arm and righting Rinoa. For a second, she seemed dazed and then blushed.

"Sorry," she said. "You've really changed."

"You're sorry I changed?" Leon asked curiously. He knew what she meant, but hearing it was another thing.

"I... liked you then, before, ah... to me it's not long ago, but you've kept living," Rinoa explained. She tried to smile and tried to meet Leon's gaze but couldn't. "You're so different."

"He knew," Leon said bluntly, ignoring Rinoa's last statements. "Ansem knew exactly what he was doing the entire time. I'm sure of it."

"Why, then? You knew him, didn't you?" Rinoa questioned. They kept walking, finally leaving the cemetery just as Leon spoke.

"I'll never know why," Leon admitted. In the past, that had eaten at him and made him raw on the inside because he should have known everything there was to know about the man he'd put so much trust in. "The important thing is to keep going right now, not wonder why things happened before. We'll learn from his mistakes."

"You grew up," Rinoa stated before sighing. "I'll grow up too, right?"

"Yeah," Leon replied. He squeezed her hand as they walked in silence. He'd been too worried about himself. Obviously there were many more people who needed helping. But he would be a terrible teacher and role model. Perhaps Aerith...

"Mages," Rinoa said almost absently as they stepped into the square. She was correct, though. Leon had never realized how many mages lived in such a small town. But just as there was a high number of warriors who'd escaped the military for a quiet life, mages seemed to be drawn to Hollow Bastion as well. He was sure he couldn't even name all of them, from summoners to healers and those who normally dealt in unique, offensive magic.

Rinoa let go of his hand almost nervously, checking to see if anyone had noticed.

"I'll see you, Leon." There was a trace of sadness in her voice as she offered him a little wave before joining a couple of her peers. But Leon knew it was just as well - it would save a heartbreaking confession later.

"I see you've got yourself a girlfriend." Aerith's voice always made him feel comfortable, no matter what ridiculous thing she was saying. Even when they bickered like the siblings they played the roles of for nine years, he didn't really take any of it seriously.

"No," Leon answered as he turned to face her. "I think she understands, though. And you - you've been busy."

Aerith giggled. "Those are just rumours. I want to take everything nice and slow, even if you don't."

"Sounds like rumours, again," Leon quickly replied.

"Well, I didn't think you really moved in with my childhood crush because you two were suddenly lovers," Aerith admitted. "Though that'd be kinda hot, I think. I mean, if... I should go find Ellone."

"I should too," Leon said. "So that's to say you're absolutely not..."

"Absolutely not anything anyone at all," Aerith said as they started to walk across the square, neither one looking at one another, each picking up the other's pace and trying to go faster until they were almost both running and definitely both laughing.

"Me neither," Leon stated just as Ellone stepped forward. The crowd fell silent as she stepped up onto a bench and even Leon was held in the instant thrall his sister created.

"Thank you," she said with a smile before holding her arms out, palms flat. "On behalf of Hollow Bastion, thank you. On behalf of everyone you've helped feed, everyone you've healed, and everyone who simply needed a guide, thank you.

"While there is food, and though life is going on, I'd like to ask that all of us who are able to give of ourselves to do so, whether it be a haste spell on vegetables or helping shape the mind of one younger than you. While our army unit and sheriff and volunteer fighters keep us safe, we..."

Leon stopped listening to Ellone's words, wondering instead when she became so mature. Unless she'd always been that way and he'd just been too young to notice.

"Hey..." Yuffie stepped up beside Leon, whispering her greeting before giving him a friendly punch that said more than words. He hadn't been ignoring her, after all. There had just been so many other events and at times, he had to admit, the lack of her presence had been somewhat startling.

Still, as he reached to cuff her shoulder in response, finding a happy medium was going to be necessary. The old, the new, and the lifetime in between - all of it had to become something real.

And Ellone kept speaking until the excitement in the crowd grew louder than her single voice.

°°°   
To be continued, of course...


	10. of little things

Title: Aftershocks  
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts  
Part: 10 of ?  
Disclaimer: I owneth not KH nor any Square character mentioned herein. No profit is being made.  
Warning: General dark themes.  
Rating: M (Overall)  
Summary: Aftershocks is a post-KH A/T detailing the return to daily life in Hollow Bastion. In this chapter, Leon deals with late nights and questions that cannot be answered. Where there is an absence of motion, there is a wealth of foundation.  
Characters: Leon-centric, with characters from all Final Fantasies and other sundry Square games in various roles.

* * *

"I think we can open tomorrow," Zack said as he pulled up the hem of his shirt to wipe off his forehead. "Everything is organized and clean and good..."

Leon nodded as he looked around. They'd spent the past few nights organizing and re-organizing everything in the weapons shop until they'd both been too exhausted to continue.

"We'll need more practice swords," Zack continued, almost as much to himself as to Leon. "I heard about Ellone's mage-gathering and how they're going to be more open with mage training."

"You think we'll have a lot of prospective fighters, too?" Leon asked before realizing that he really hadn't had to ask. Of course all of the children who'd been thrust into adulthood would want to emulate the town's protectors even if it wasn't through traditional means like joining the army or becoming a deputy sheriff.

"I think we'll have some of everything," Zack replied as he glanced around again. "We need some flags or balloons, maybe."

"Maybe I can borrow the ones that the clothing swap are using," Leon suggested as he walked over to lean on one of the beams that supported the floor above. "Or at least find out where theirs came from. Do we have an 'Open' sign?"

Zack chuckled. "I have not overlooked the little details..." he announced. "But, um, we don't. There should be one, but I couldn't find it."

"Just write on a piece of cardboard for now," Leon said as he slid down to sit on the floor. "I can't remember if there ever was one to begin with."

"Pretty true," Zack noted as he sat down near Leon and promptly flopped back on the floor. "I'm wiped out. I think we've touched every single thing in this place at least twice."

"Without doing a proper inventory," Leon added.

"We'll have time," Zack replied as he folded his arms behind his head. "Just have to write down every item we sell until we can do a full inventory. Besides, we don't even know if we can re-order from the main kingdom."

Leon froze - he hadn't even thought about that. Hollow Bastion was something of an outpost turned into a town, situated at least a week's journey from the main kingdom. Supplies generally took a month to arrive and that was when there was near-daily riders and wagons traversing the rough terrain between. Aside from free-roaming dragons, a plethora of other dangers assaulted anyone unprepared for the trip. Leon himself had only been to the main kingdom once and that had been as part of a sizable group. And still, they'd had problems with their wagon and the trip had taken three extra days and a good part of that had been helping push.

If the main kingdom was in the same shape Hollow Bastion was in, or worse, they probably hadn't even stopped to think about the outposts, outlying towns or forts. Leon didn't think he'd want them to, unless they were exceptionally well-organized. Still, no one had arrived in town, from anywhere, since the world rebuilt itself.

There wasn't even any evidence that there was still a main kingdom, Leon thought bleakly. He closed his eyes. Technically, the castle was the epicenter of everything, yet it had survived everything perfectly. If the effects of everything were somehow worst farther outward...

"Hey, Leon..."

"Sorry," Leon replied, snapping his eyes open and looking over at Zack who had propped himself up inches away. "Was thinking..."

"Figured," Zack replied. "I kinda was too. Maybe once everything is settled in town, we can get some horses or chocobos or something and go see. I mean, as an official army thing, if the general will allow it. I wonder if he's even thought about it."

Leon nodded before the almost-obvious hit him. "He might be able to scout ahead," Leon pondered aloud. "I don't know."

"Right!" Zack agreed with a smile. "He can just teleport there!"

"Depends," Leon commented. "There might be limits on that. It's not a common mage skill, but it can be learned. I know I read about some forms of the power in Ellone's books. Mostly it's limited to familiar areas..."

"General Sephiroth has definitely been to the main kingdom," Zack said. He brushed his hair back and crossed his legs, settling in without much regard for Leon's personal space, if he even had any left after working closely beside Zack for the last few days and nights.

"Doesn't mean the main kingdom is... well, there," Leon stated before realizing that might have been a little too blunt and otherwise pessimistic. "Or that Sephiroth can go that far without exhausting himself."

"That man doesn't get exhausted," Zack said with a smile that any other time, Leon would have taken as a bit too knowing. But at the moment he was exhausted and they both really needed to change the subject and get back to the bad jokes and strange stories they'd been coloring the evenings with.

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, each silently contemplating a little bit of everything.

"If we're opening tomorrow, we should probably get some sleep," Leon finally said as he wearily got to his feet.

"Or we could see if the pub is open," Zack suggested as he sprawled back out on the floor. "Maybe not. I think you'd have to carry me there and someone would have to carry us both back here."

"I'm not carrying you," Leon started as he glanced through the front window almost incidentally until he noticed shadows outside. "Oh no..."

"What?" Zack asked, his eyes wide as he jumped to his feet. "What's out there?"

"Utter horror and likely my doom," Leon deadpanned. "It's Laguna."

Zack sighed and headed towards the back of the store. "You deal with him. I'm going to bed. Turn the lights off when you're done."

Frowning, Leon walked over and unlocked the front door.

"We're not open," he said as he looked at his father and the two young men following him with wagons. It took a second to process in his tired mind, but once Leon realized that this wasn't a casual visit, he knew he'd have to help.

"I'll try to sell you advertising space tomorrow," Laguna replied as he handed Leon a thin, doubled-over newspaper. "It's not much, but it's a start. I'd like to get these delivered tonight."

Leon nodded as he started looking the paper over.

"I don't think there's anything you don't know in there," Laguna said almost flatly. "Actually, I'd like you to help deliver these."

"Laguna, I..." Leon paused, making sure he said the right thing. "I have to turn the lights off and lock up first."

"Thanks, Squall," Laguna replied, smiling as Leon ducked back into the shop. The lights and the keys weren't a bit deal and though he couldn't imagine why he was doing it, he grabbed his gunblade from behind the counter and holstered it as if he was heading out to battle. He had the door locked and the keys clipped onto one of his belts before anyone spoke to him again.

"Hello again," one of the shadows behind Laguna said. The voice sounded familiar and once Leon navigated out from beneath the shop's awning, he could see that it was Zidane from up on the hill. Beside him, the other boy was tight-lipped and unfamiliar. He had to be in his late teens, but instead of his longish blond hair ringing bells, it merely tapped at them with toothpicks. Both the original age gap and the nine year hole proved too much for Leon's memory.

"Hello, Zidane," Leon said. "How are you doing?"

"Okay, I guess," Zidane admitted. "Are you going to be selling weapons soon?"

"Tomorrow, if Zack wakes up before mid-evening," Leon replied before turning his attention to the quiet young man. "And you are?"

"This is Edward," Laguna replied, attempting to step back behind the young man and push him forward. "He recently came from the main kingdom to study with the minstrel that took up residence near Doctor Nusakan's place."

"Oh, okay," Leon offered as he held out a hand in Edward's direction. "It's nice to meet you."

"Yeah," Edward said quickly before quickly letting his hand flop about within Leon's grasp and then retracting it. "Hi."

"He's not going to bite," Zidane chided before winking at Leon.

"You boys have fun," Laguna said with a wave as he headed off in the direction of the small newspaper office. "I need to clean up."

Leon felt a bit deflated, but now that both Edward and Zidane were looking at him, he couldn't exactly say no.

"Okay," Leon said as he glanced at the wagons. "We'll do this together. Every house in town should take us about about four hours - a little less if we split up on the hill and... No, we'll stay together for the perimeter."

"Right!" Zidane agreed. "So which way first?"

"Somewhere that makes sense," Edward suggested, peeking from beneath his bangs.

"Hollow Bastion is divided into four paper routes," Leon said as he tried to remember each of them. He'd certainly carried each enough times, but trying to do all of them in the dark with two followers after nine years wasn't quite the same. But he had general ideas of everything and could improvise as need-be. Certainly, he remembered the short cuts and had been using them during the last couple days when running small errands. "We can start at the beginning of the first route."

Both young men nodded and silently followed as Leon began to walk towards the hulking castle to start in what was, of course, the beginning of all things, paper routes included.

"Does someone live in there?" Edward asked softly as they approached the path leading upwards to the main entry. Everything, including the path and the stagnant pools were shrouded in shadow and as much as he hated to admit it even to himself, the place looked scary.

"Of course someone lives there," Zidane replied, pointing upwards to a where windows were lit in the uppermost sections. "See the lights on?"

"There's been talk of turning it into apartments of some sort," Leon said. A few of his own fears shook away and he mentally chided himself for letting the castle get to him yet again. "More of a dormitory, really, for some of the displaced young people in town."

"Oh," Edward said. "So we have to go up there."

"Yes," Zidane said with a smile. "Or I can go. I just put the paper at the door, right?"

"If the front door is unlocked, put it just inside the door," Leon instructed, amazed at how little details came rushing back to him as though he had lost the same nine years as the rest of the town. "If not, there's a niche with a clip beside the door so it doesn't blow away. Most of the houses in town have slots in their doors for letters or papers or sale fliers, so it'll be easier."

"Okay!" Zidane announced, grabbing a paper from the top of his wagon and scrambling upwards towards the path, bounding with the sort of energy that Leon hoped they'd all be able to maintain for the next few hours. Already it was late and few lights were on in the town aside from the handfulls of clustered streetlights that dotted only the major corners of town.

Laguna was always so impulsive. The paper could have waited until morning, easily, but Laguna had managed to round up a team to take care of it right away. As Zidane disappeared from sight, Leon picked up a paper again and began to actually take in the words on the printed page. Not surprisingly, almost every byline bore Laguna's name. But it didn't matter - Laguna had found his niche and he was a fairly good writer.

The front page was mostly the clearest explanation possible of what had happened, along with some reactions from various important residents. Assuming he knew more than what he could glean from the article, he turned the page to stare down an entire page of obituaries for all of the townsfolk who hadn't survived the void. At the bottom was a list of missing persons, something Leon hadn't even speculated upon. It seemed he'd have something to talk to Laguna about after this chore was completed. And after he'd slept.

The third page was a list of open businesses and services, along with what they'd accept in leiu of payment. Leon skimmed over that before closing the paper and quickly noticing the back page was a summary of the mages meeting, another meeting about education and some other smaller, trivial things.

By the time he'd returned it to the pile, Zidane was visible coming down the path. Edward hadn't said a word, but he looked at least twice as nervous as he had been before. Leon wanted to sigh. He could only assume, without asking, that Edward had come from a fairly wealthy or even royal family to learn more of the world and had instead arrived in time for disaster.

"Door was open!" Zidane called as he jumped the last few steps and then ran to his wagon. "No problem! One down, um..."

"A few hundred to go," Leon supplied with a nod and pointed towards the closest section of town. "From here, we'll just work towards the square. It's easy to miss the one or two houses on side streets, so pay attention. And apartments will have some variety of different numbers stuck on them, especially above shops."

"There's an easier way to do that," Edward said. "Numbering, I mean."

"Sure," Zidane countered. "But I always kinda liked that about this place - even though I live in a house with my brother and sister, if I wanted to, I could live at Seventeen and Five-Eigths Market Street."

Leon couldn't help smiling. Zidane had rather nicely opened up the conversation for questions. "Zidane, you haven't always lived here, right? And I didn't even know you had a younger sister."

"Mikoto?" Zidane questioned and Leon finally had to shake his head. Zidane was a few years younger than he was - closer to Cloud's age. "She's a couple years younger than I am," he reasoned. "Maybe too young for you to know."

"How old are you both?" Edward asked. They reached the first house and Zidane took a paper, folded it once more and shoved it through the slot in the door.

"Twenty-five," Leon said firmly. Edward took a paper and did the same thing with the house across the narrow street.

Picking up a paper of his own to deliver to the next house, Leon waited for both boys to calculate their ages.

"Twenty-three?" Zidane said almost horrified. "I can't be twenty-three. Maybe I'll be nineteen instead. I don't think it matters too much if I just pick an age. I always wanted to be nineteen."

"Why?" Edward questioned. They moved along, passing out another set of papers.

Zidane shrugged. "I dunno. I just did. I guess it sounds silly now..."

"I wanted to fight a dragon," Leon admitted. "It wasn't as fun as I'd decided it should be."

Both boys nodded. Leon had to remind himself that they weren't boys, no matter how inexperienced they were.

"I think I'm close to twenty," Edward said. "I was supposed to go home when I was seventeen... Leon, did everything go away? Like, did the whole world go away, or just part of it?"

"All of it," Leon replied before tucking a newspaper in a slot. They'd nearly made their way to the end of the block. Talking helped.

"Well, it all came back, right?" Zidane quipped with a toothy smile. He paused, frowned and looked at Leon. "Right?"

"I don't know," Leon admitted. Maybe talking wasn't helping. "Maybe we should find another subject."

"What other subjects are there?" Edward asked. "What else is there right now? We all woke up and everything was different."

Sighing, Leon had to admit a bit of a point, though he wasn't going to say so out loud.

"Hey, you're training to be a bard, right?" Zidane asked, bouncing over in front of Edward. "You could tell us a story or sing or something..."

"But I just started learning," Edward admitted. "I don't know anything yet."

"Try," Zidane demanded. "Just tell a story about anything. Make it up as you go."

They finished another block as Edward finally opened his mouth.

"Once upon a time, there was a princess named Anna..."

"Don't you live next to a girl named Anna?" Zidane asked with a leer.

"Let him tell the story," Leon warned as he folded another paper and delivered it. "And keep walking. Fast. I want to go to bed before sunrise for once.

* * *

"Tell me again," Zack said as he placed the hand-lettered 'Open' sign in the window and unlocked the door, opening it to bright sunshine and a gust of warm wind. "Why are you awake?"

"Because the sunrise was really pretty and I just had to tell you about it," Leon grumbled from his stool behind the sales counter. He leaned back against the wall and had his eyes half-closed, but it was just like hours before, sleep just wasn't presenting itself.

"You're grumpy when you're tired," Zack noted before stepping out into the street and looking both ways. "Hey, where's the rush of customers?"

"Zack, you opened the door fifteen seconds ago."

"Seventeen," Zack corrected. "Why don't you try to sleep?"

"Yes, because I've not tried that yet," Leon deadpanned in response. "Maybe I can go find Ellone and she can throw a sleep spell at me."

"And leave me alone with the rush of customers that'll appear at absolutely any moment?" Zack mock-questioned as he wandered the length of the store and then crossed behind the counter to sit next to Leon. "Good to see the paper, though."

"Laguna says he'll sell us some advertising space."

"Great!" Zack exclaimed. "Hmm. We'll have to sell something first, though, to pay for it."

They both sighed.

A couple of hours later, while Zack had stepped out to get lunch and Leon had actually managed to nod off, the first two customers stepped into the shop.

* * *

Note: Thank you for hanging in there with me. Let's keep going!


End file.
